Tampa Tribune sold for $9.5 million

A few more details about the Tampa Tribune sale emerged today:

- Revolution Capital gets $9 million in assets -- an amount equivalent to more than 95 percent of the purchase price. That includes the old Tribune building (depreciated value: $935,000) and tangible property (technology, printing presses worth $6.4 million). The sale also includes the land the old Tribune building sits on. Combined with the adjacent new building, the property is valued at $3.7 million. Media General is seeking city approval to split the parcels.

It means Media General sold the Tribune at cost, just to get it off the books. That's not an indictment of the Tribune, by the way ... but it speaks volumes about Media General.

Also:

- Media General keeps the employee parking garage. Apparently, Tribune employees will still be allowed to park there. (You watch ... the weekly fee will go up.)

- Media General will continue to manage the Tribune's pension plan. (For the few remaining employees who are still eligible for it.)

Complete story here: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/more-details-emerge-on-sale-of-tampa-tribune/1255542

 

pulled within 24 hours.

 

Not sure what to make of that. I don't necessarily read anything bad into it. Perhaps the current and/or new executives wanted to keep internal communication internal. Or maybe they're trying to drive traffic to video hosted on their own site, rather than YouTube, instead.

 

I had to laugh at that part.

"Dear MG: How can I miss you if you won't go away?"

 

If they're like every private equity company in the history of commerce, they value and obsessively guard their secrecy. But they could be different, I suppose.

 

Price seems cheap but to Media General perhaps it was better to get something rather than shuttering the place and dealing with the fallout of jettisoning employees. It gets the blood of their hands and square on the private equity firm.

 

I'd like to think there's some validity to that.

Maybe it's the romantic in me, but I'd like to think that Media General sold it compassionately -- at cost, to a good home -- after abusing it for so many years. After all, the Tribune was its largest newspaper and biggest cash cow for decades, and I'll even go so far as to say that having the Trib -- a major daily in a top 20 market -- made MG seem less small-time than it is.

On the other hand, the business realist in me says MG has no sense of the word "compassion" and simply dumped it to the first buyer who made more than a token bid.

 

Well, the celebration came to an end today, by all accounts.

http://jimromenesko.com/2012/10/22/tampa-tribunes-new-owner-cuts-salaries-offers-buyouts/

 

They're gonna bleed it for a couple years, then sell the press and real estate.

 

What's the buyout offer?

 

Romenesko reports it's 6% pay cuts for most Tribune staffers.

http://jimromenesko.com/2012/10/23/report-tampa-tribune-cuts-staffers-pay-by-6/

 

That is priceless that ownership's VP scolded Romenesko for posting the memo without permission. Yes, it will be a hyper-aggressive media machine down there in Tampa.

6 percent, though, it sounds like that's a bit better than what can happen in these situations. I think San Diego and LA/Bay Area papers took bigger haircuts than that.

I repeat my earlier quesrtion: What's the buyout offer? If it's a truly legitimate offer that allows people to get six or more months of salary and benefits, people should be jumping at it.