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CHANDLERS MAY BID FOR TRIBUNE AS LAST RESORT
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: James Rainey and Thomas S. Mulligan]
Tribune probably will attract few, if any, bids for the entire company by Wednesday's deadline, and any offers it does receive are expected to be close to the current share price. Some following the Tribune saga said they expected at least a few bids for the media giant -- perhaps including one from the Chandlers themselves. A successful Chandler bid would put the family back in control of The Times after a 118-year reign that ended in 2000 when the paper and other holdings were sold to Tribune. Those following the deal closely believe that the family would make such a bid as a fallback. Despite myriad potential pitfalls, they said the most consistent interest in a deal has been expressed by a group composed of three private equity firms -- Madison Dearborn Partners of Chicago, Apollo Management of New York and Providence Equity Partners of Rhode Island. The consortium has long been viewed as a contender for Tribune because of Madison Dearborn's Chicago roots and its reported interest in hometown assets such as the Cubs and WGN-TV. Former Tribune Chief Executive John W. Madigan was a Madison Dearborn partner until he took a leave of absence in the fall and later resigned. Tribune's control of the Cubs could be viewed as particularly attractive to Madison Dearborn CEO John Canning, a onetime college catcher and avid baseball man who has said he would like to own a major league team. Canning already owns several minor league clubs and has a minority interest in Major League Baseball's Milwaukee Brewers. (So, yeah, Cubs fans... the upside may be that our team is run as well as the brewers soon.)
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-tribune15jan15,1,1692...
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See also --

* Odd Couple Ponder Bid for Tribune
Will there be a bid for Tribune from Eli Broad, the straight-talking billionaire whose art collection and philanthropic efforts to revitalize downtown Los Angeles have put him happily in the public eye, and Ronald W. Burkle, the supermarket mogul, Democratic fund-raiser and F.O.B. (friend of Bill Clinton) who tries -- usually unsuccessfully -- to avoid publicity?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/business/media/16tribune.html

* Newspaper Ownership Is Turning The Page
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Frank Ahrens]
A look at parallels between possible Trib sale and that of the orange County Register.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR200701...
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DOCUMENTS BORNE BY WINDS OF FREE SPEECH
[SOURCE: New York Times 1/15, AUTHOR: Tom Zeller]
A showdown is scheduled for a federal courtroom in Brooklyn rthis week, where words like “First Amendment” and “freedom of speech” and “prior restraint” are likely to mix seamlessly with references to “BitTorrent” and “Wiki.” It is a messy plot that pits Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical giant at the center of several articles in The New York Times suggesting that the company tried to hide or play down the health risks of its leading antipsychotic drug, Zyprexa, and lawyers representing various individuals, organizations and Web sites -- all arguing that their online speech has been gagged. The case has attracted the attention of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the venerable digital rights group based in San Francisco, and one of its lawyers, Fred von Lohmann, who is now representing an anonymous Internet user caught up in the legal fracas. “One of the core missions of the foundation’s 16-year history has been to establish that when you go online, you take with you all the same civil rights with you had with you in prior media,” said Mr. von Lohmann. “But of course, you need to fight for that principle.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/technology/15link.html
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SOMALIA'S TRANSITIONAL GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN 3 RADIO STATIONS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeffery Gettleman]
Somalia’s transitional government shut three of the country’s biggest radio stations on Monday, accusing them of broadcasting incendiary propaganda. Executives of the radio stations, however, said that was no excuse to force them off the air. “All we have done is voice different opinions,” said Mohammed Amiin, deputy chairman of Shabelle Media Network. “We never expected this to happen.” Abdirahman Dinari, spokesman for the transitional government, accused Shabelle, along with the other stations, of making false reports to stir up the people against the government. “They said our soldiers were looting the markets and harassing people, which was totally untrue,” he said. “They are using the media to undermine the government. They have been doing this for months.” Security officials have summoned station owners to a meeting on Tuesday, and Mr. Dinari said there was a possibility that the stations would soon be back on the air, after they were given a warning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/world/africa/16somalia.html
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CELL PHONE SUBSIDIES ENRICH TELECOMS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Bob Porterfield]
Cellular subscribers are paying hundreds of millions of dollars each year to subsidize landline telephone service, enriching big telecommunications companies while providing little or no benefit to cell phone users. The subsidies are intended to reimburse the companies for providing traditional phone service in rough terrain and rural areas where stringing lines can be costly. But rampant development has transformed some of these backwaters into booming subdivisions, with no real adjustment to the distribution formula; others, like the oceanfront celebrity playground of Malibu, are receiving subsidies simply because of their difficult topography. Outdated formulas for tabulating the surcharges - coupled with feeble government oversight - have meant a windfall for phone companies, which are fighting to preserve them.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CELLULAR_SURCHARGES?SITE=RIWOO&SE...