Tribune predicts double-digit profit growth for 2004

Tribune Co. executives see signs of a bright future in everythingfrom resurgent help-wanted ads to "Sex and the City." In Los Angeles,however, they have a Schwarzenegger problem.

The Chicago-based media conglomerate -- whose holdings include 13newspapers, 26 television stations and the Chicago Cubs -- will postdouble-digit profit growth in 2004 after logging record profits thisyear, Chief Executive Dennis FitzSimons said Thursday. And though itfaces increased pension and newsprint costs, it will inch ahead withexpansions on nearly every front of its far-reaching empire.

"As the only media company with television stations, newspapersand Web sites in the nation's top three markets of New York, L.A. andChicago, we ... have a unique edge," said FitzSimons, appearing at amedia conference in New York. "We share content, cross-promote andcross-sell our advertising among our businesses."

The "cross-selling" this year included a magazine promotingTribune's WB network -- home of shows like "The Gilmore Girls" -- asa supplement to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times.

FitzSimons and other Tribune brass touted a number of businessdeals and new ventures as signs that the company was humming along.Tribune will sell its 8.6 percent stake in the Golf Channel toComcast Corp. for $100 million. And while pocketing that cash, it isstarting a local sports channel in September with Comcast to belaunched next September.

Help-wanted ads increased 1 percent in November from the yearbefore, the first increase seen in 36 months at the company'snewspapers, FitzSimons said. If more companies start to hire,Tribune's Careerbuilder Web site also stands to gain. The site isreplacing Monster.com as the exclusive job listings provider for AOLand Microsoft Networks.

On the television side, the WGN Superstation will add 7 millionsubscribers to its current 58 million. And the acquisition of "Sexand the City" reruns will help attract young viewers to its localstations, said broadcasting chief Patrick Mullen.

Circulation at Tribune's newspapers has been "flattish," saidTribune Publishing President Jack Fuller. A story in one of thosepapers, the Los Angeles Times, "caused a protest that cost them somecirculation," Fuller said. The story dealt with allegations of sexualmisconduct against Arnold Schwarzenegger that was published rightbefore his recent election as governor of California. It has cost thepaper 10,000 subscribers, or 1 percent of its seven-day averagecirculation, according to newspaper spokeswoman Martha Goldstein.

Addressing the possible sale of newspapers owned by HollingerInternational, the owner of the Sun-Times, FitzSimons told Reutersthat "some clarity has to come out with regards to the process"before Tribune would consider a bid.