More Local

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
• Former Marine to serve two years in jail for killing Albuquerque robber
• Wilson-Pearce battle for U.S. Senate exemplifies party's disparity

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

E.W. Scripps Company is seeking a buyer for The Albuquerque Tribune, and said it will close the city's afternoon newspaper if one cannot be found.

Scripps executives this morning informed The Trib's newsroom of the decision to retain private investment banking firm Broadwater & Associates to assist the Cincinnati-based company in its search for a qualified buyer. Employees were told Scripps will cease publishing The Trib if a buyer could not be found within a reasonable period of time.

A decision on the paper's status is expected within two months.

"The Albuquerque Tribune, with its outstanding reputation for journalistic excellence, has been enlightening readers in New Mexico for more than 80 years," said Rich Boehne, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Scripps. "Unfortunately, readers in Albuquerque, as in nearly all cities across America, are choosing other media alternatives to afternoon newspapers."

The Trib, which recently celebrated its 85th birthday, is published as part of a joint operating agreement, established in 1933. The controlling partner in the agreement is the Journal Publishing Co., which owns the Albuquerque Journal.

The agreement is set to expire in 2022. The Trib is for sale without benefit of the JOA, which Scripps and Journal Publishing Co. intend to terminate.

Under terms of the joint operating agreement, the Albuquerque Publishing Co., formed by the two partners, has been responsible for the business operating of The Trib, including advertising, subscription sales, production and distribution. Scripps and Journal Publishing share the combined profits generated by The Trib and Journal.

The editorial staffs at The Trib and Journal are separate and operate independently of one another.

In 1988, The Trib's circulation stood at 42,000. Its sales have steadily declined in the years since and now stand at about 10,000. The Journal's paid circulation is 106,000 daily and 145,000 on Sunday.

Joint operating agreements are allowed under the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970. The legislation grants a limited anti-trust exemption in the interest of preserving independent editorial voices in communities threatened with the financial failure of one or more of their newspapers. The Albuquerque joint operating agreement, the oldest of its kind in the country, includes several amendments to the original document. Any buyer acceptable to Scripps would have to be approved by the U.S. Justice Department.

The Trib's tradition of journalism is long. The newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1994 for reporter Eileen Welsome's series "The Plutonium Experiment." It documented the lives of Americans who had unknowingly been used in government radiation experiments.

The Trib also was a Pulitzer finalist in 1996 and first-place winner in the 1998 and 2001 National Headliner Awards. It won a National Journalism Award in 2002 for "State of Our Children," a 20-part series documenting the travails that face kids in this state.

"It's difficult news, of course. Scripps' newspapers operate under a motto - `Give light, and people will find their way' - for a long time," said Tribune Editor Phill Casaus. "But our staff has persevered through a lot over the years, and I know we'll do the best job we can."