Trib Total Media, the North Shore-based media organization behind the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, is offering for sale nine of its 77 publications.
The company announced Friday that it will sell four daily newspapers: The Valley Independent in Monessen, Leader Times in Kittanning, The Daily News in McKeesport and the Daily Courier in Connellsville.
Also up for sale are five weeklies: The Mount Pleasant Journal, The (Scottdale) Independent-Observer, the Ligonier Echo, The (West Newton) Times-Sun and Jeannette Spirit. The company purchased the five weeklies in 2007 from Scottdale-based community newspaper publisher The Laurel Group.
In addition to the sales of the publications, the company will offer buyout packages to approximately 425 of its eligible long-term employees at its remaining properties. Trib Total Media expects around 75 employees to accept the offer.
An email to Trib Total Media employees obtained by the Post-Gazette says full-time employees whose combined age and years of service equals 58 and who are not working for the papers being sold are eligible for the buyout. Employees will receive one and a half weeks’ pay for every year of service. Early retirees who take the offer will be entitled to health care benefits the entire time they receive buyout payments.
The email said the offer will be available to eligible employees “for the next seven days.”
Jennifer Bertetto, Trib Total Media president and CEO, said in a statement that the sale is “part of a larger strategic growth plan” developed by the board of directors to address a year of changes that include the July 2014 death of Richard M. Scaife.
Ms. Bertetto said Mr. Scaife’s death “prompted the board to undertake a strategic review of the company and identify our best opportunity for growth in an ever-evolving media landscape.”
“Additional investments are planned to enhance our digital offerings that will allow us to deliver the news where, when and how our readers would like to receive it,” she added.
Ms. Bertetto reiterated the urgency to boost the company’s digital offerings in the email to employees.
“Our founder, Richard Scaife, has spent 45 years building this organization and we are proud of his legacy. However, technological changes have adjusted how consumers get their news and information, and Trib Total Media is not immune to those changes,” it says.
The company is working with Boston-based investment banking firm Dunn Rush & Co. LLC as a financial adviser on the sale. A representative from Dunn Rush & Co. declined to comment for this story. Trib Total Media did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Deborah Todd: dtodd@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1652.
First Published: August 28, 2015, 2:25 p.m.
