Peter
Liguori, the longtime television executive, was appointed the new chief
executive of the Tribune Company in 2013, just two and a half weeks
after the newspaper and TV company emerged from an agonizing four-year
bankruptcy process.
Mr. Liguori swiftly moved to spin off the publishing business and rebrand the company — now called Tribune Media
— as a kind of 167-year old start-up focused on television. His
strategy is built on three pillars: local television, data and the
conversion of WGN America, a onetime superstation, into a national
entertainment network.
To that end, Tribune struck a $2.7 billion deal in 2013 to
buy 19 television stations, making it the largest station owner in the
country, and in 2014 it closed a $170 million deal for the entertainment data service Gracenote.
WGN America now is in about 80 million homes and has invested in four
original scripted series that have helped build audiences for the
network: “Salem,” “Outsiders,” “Underground” and the now-canceled
“Manhattan.”
Yet
the company’s share price has plunged about 45 percent over the last
year as fears loomed about the fate of the media business. And Mr.
Liguori recently disclosed that Tribune had hired financial advisers to explore strategic partnerships or the potential sale of the company.
No comments:
Post a Comment