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Tribune Updates Business Progress
at Media Conference
Company
highlights publishing accomplishments and help-wanted growth
strategies
CHICAGO, September 8, 2003
-- Tribune Company (NYSE: TRB) executives
today provided an update on the company’s publishing
business progress and help-wanted growth strategies at the
Morgan Stanley Global Media & Communications Conference
in Boston.
"Overall, business is solid," said
Jack Fuller, Tribune Publishing president. "August revenues
were again up year-over-year for the fifth straight month.
The last two weeks looked better than the first two, and we
expect this momentum to continue into September."
Recent Tribune Publishing accomplishments include
Baltimore Sun Company’s June 24 labor agreement with
the Newspaper Guild that permits management to align pay with
performance and provides flexibility to begin improving operations
and financial results; last week’s launch of Hoy, a
Spanish-language daily, in Chicago and its goal to match the
publication’s success in New York; and the continued
growth of RedEye, a Monday through Friday commuter edition
of the Chicago Tribune geared towards younger readers.
Fuller reviewed the state of the help-wanted
market and its impact on Tribune’s business. He noted
that CareerBuilder’s recent distribution agreements
with AOL and MSN are expected to draw millions more unique
visitors monthly, bringing CareerBuilder’s reach to
well over 10 million users a month. The partnerships will
enable CareerBuilder to continue to gain market share in online
job postings, job seekers and revenues.
"There is a powerful structural reason
to be optimistic about help wanted," said Fuller. "Within
the next five years the baby boomers will begin retiring in
significant numbers, and this tightening of the labor market
will create a highly competitive recruitment marketplace.
Though our partnership with CareerBuilder and our powerful
combination of print and online recruitment products, Tribune
will be well positioned for an upturn in the market."
An archive of today’s presentation will
be available on the Tribune Company Web site at www.tribune.com
for four weeks.
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TRIBUNE (NYSE:TRB) is one of the country’s
premier media companies, operating businesses in broadcasting
and publishing. 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. In
publishing, Tribune operates 12 market-leading daily newspapers
such as the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Newsday
plus a wide range of targeted publications including Spanish-language
newspapers. In broadcasting, Tribune properties include 26
television stations and Superstation WGN on national cable.
These publishing and broadcasting interests are complemented
by high-traffic news and information Web sites in 20 of the
nation’s top 30 markets.
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