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Press Release

Revenues Increased 7 Percent in November

Company Expects Record Fourth Quarter and Full Year Earnings

Growth Strategies to be Outlined at Media Conferences This Week

CHICAGO, December 10, 2002 -- Tribune Company (NYSE: TRB) today reported its summary of revenues and newspaper advertising volume for period 11, ended Nov. 24, 2002. Consolidated revenues for the period were $446 million, up 7 percent from last year’s $419 million. Year-to-date, consolidated revenues are up 2 percent compared with last year.

"Business continues to be strong in December, so we are ending 2002 on a positive note," said John W. Madigan, Tribune’s chairman and chief executive officer. "After a challenging start to the year, we expect to achieve record earnings per share in the fourth quarter and for the full year as well."

Dennis FitzSimons, Tribune’s president and chief operating officer said, "These results reflect the continued dedication of all our employees and the leadership of our management team. Despite flat revenues for the year, publishing group cash flow margins have improved four percentage points, to about 26 percent. Television cash flow margins will be about 40 percent, improving more than 2 percentage points over last year." He continued, "Next year our priorities will be top line revenue growth and continued margin improvement."

Presentations Will Outline Strategies for Growth and Financial Outlook

FitzSimons will be the luncheon speaker at the UBS Warburg Media Conference on Wednesday, Dec. 11, at the Grand Hyatt New York. On Thursday, Madigan, FitzSimons and Don Grenesko, senior vice president and chief financial officer, will make presentations during lunch at the CSFB Media Week conference at the Plaza Hotel. The presentations will outline Tribune’s strategies for growth, as well as the company’s financial outlook. Webcasts of both presentations can be accessed at the company’s Web site, tribune.com.

For 2002, Grenesko says the company is comfortable with analysts’ consensus earnings estimate of 54 cents for the fourth quarter and $1.84 for the full year.

Grenesko says that in 2003, Tribune expects to grow earnings per share in the low-double digit range, consistent with the current range of analysts’ estimates. He says the company also plans to generate about $1.6 billion of EBITDA in 2003 and free cash flow of nearly $800 million. Margins in both the publishing and television groups are expected to continue to improve in 2003. Tribune Interactive, profitable for the first time this year, is again expected to post good operating cash flow margins, due to revenue growth and continued cost controls.

Impact of Thanksgiving Holiday

Period 11 retail and classified revenues are not comparable to November 2001 because of the timing of the Thanksgiving holiday. Last year’s holiday fell in Period 11, this year it falls in period 12. Thanksgiving is a particularly strong week for retail advertisers but a soft week for classified advertisers. Trends in retail and classified advertising should be analyzed with periods 11 and 12 together to account for the change in the timing of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Newspaper advertising revenues for period 11 plus estimates of the first two weeks of period 12 (a six-week period) show an increase of 5 percent. Retail rose 2 percent, national grew 14 percent and classified increased 3 percent. Help wanted decreased 7 percent, a sequential improvement from the decrease of 8 percent in period 10. Auto increased 7 percent and real estate grew 10 percent.

November Revenue Detail

Publishing revenues in November (a four week period) were $320 million, 2 percent higher than last year’s $313 million. Advertising revenues increased 2 percent to
$247 million, compared with $241 million in November 2001. Total advertising inches were flat, while preprint pieces declined 3 percent.

The following results are for period 11 alone:

• Retail advertising decreased 6 percent due to declines in the department store, electronics and other retail categories, partially offset by gains in the food category. Preprint revenues, which are principally included in retail, were down1 percent. Full run retail linage was down 14 percent. As noted above, these declines are principally attributable to the timing of the Thanksgiving holiday.
  
• National advertising rose 13 percent due to strength in the hi-tech, travel and resorts, financial and auto manufacturers categories. Full run national volume was up 8 percent.
  
• Classified advertising, which was positively impacted by the timing of the Thanksgiving holiday, rose 7 percent as all categories increased. Help wanted was up 5 percent, auto increased 3 percent and real estate grew 20 percent. Full run classified volume was up 2 percent for the period.

Broadcasting and Entertainment revenues increased 19 percent to $119 million, compared with $100 million in November 2001. Television revenues increased 21 percent. Radio/entertainment revenues increased 3 percent.

Tribune Interactive revenues grew 28 percent to $6.6 million in November, up from
$5.2 million last year due to strong growth in classifieds.

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This press release contains certain comments or forward-looking statements that are based largely on the company’s current expectations and are subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties. Such comments and statements should be understood in the context of Tribune's publicly available reports filed with the SEC, including the most current 10-Q and 10-K that contain a discussion of various factors that may affect the company's business. These factors could cause actual future performance to differ materially from current expectations.

Tribune Company is not responsible for updating the information contained in this press release beyond the published date, nor for changes made to this document by wire services or Internet service providers. More information on Tribune is available on the Internet at www.tribune.com.

TRIBUNE (NYSE: TRB) is one of the country’s premier media companies, operating businesses in broadcasting, publishing and on the Internet. It reaches more than 80 percent of U.S. households, and is the only media company with television stations, newspapers and Web sites in the nation’s top three markets. Tribune media outlets span 24 television stations including national “superstation” WGN-TV; 12 market-leading daily newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Newsday; and news and information Web sites in 18 of the nation’s top 30 markets.