Morning Wire: Tribune's TimeWarner esque visions

TimeWarner wasn't the only media company promising boat loads of synergies after their merger with AOL. Tribune Co, also promised to be the "the multimedia company of the future." However today Tribune has yet to even show a hint of what was promised. So on that note, a note, to all media CEO's who like to talk big in the moment: "Just shut up". While the entire media landscape is in turmoil, the Tribune properties in Los Angeles and New York have fared particularly poorly. Circulation is down, below the industry standards at both The Los Angeles Times and Newsday; at KTLA and WPIX, viewers have declined and audience share has plummeted. Nor has a synergistic bump in ad revenue materialized. "There is less true cross-selling between newspapers and television because the advertising markets are different," said Scott C. Smith, president of Tribune publishing, responsible for both the newspapers and the company's interactive businesses. The Tribune company, which is today valued at $9.6 billion, is more than Los Angeles and New York. It owns 11 newspapers and 26 broadcast outlets and several Internet properties. But the two coasts hold disproportionate sway within the company, with The Times, KTLA, Newsday and WPIX contributing what analysts said was roughly one-third of the company's $5.6 billion in annual revenues. read...