Morgan Stanley to Advise Tribune

The special committee of Tribune Co. directors overseeing the company’s efforts to boost its stock value announced Wednesday that it had hired Morgan Stanley as its financial advisor.

Tribune, parent corporation of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, KTLA-TV Channel 5, the Chicago Cubs and other newspaper and broadcast properties, has been under pressure from shareholders to raise its stock price.

Among the shareholders agitating for change are members of California’s Chandler family, who own just under 20% of Tribune’s shares and control three seats on the 11-member board.

Chicago-based Tribune is expected to consider such alternatives as selling the entire company, spinning off its 25 television stations into a stand-alone publicly traded entity or selling off individual newspapers.

The Times and the Hartford Courant in Connecticut have attracted would-be buyers in their hometowns.

Tribune has said its management expects to present the special committee with alternatives by the end of the year.

The seven-member committee, created Sept. 21 and headed by Northern Trust Corp. Chairman William A. Osborn, previously announced its selection of the New York firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom as its legal advisor.

Neither the Chandler representatives nor Tribune Chairman and Chief Executive Dennis J. FitzSimons are on the committee.

Morgan Stanley’s Chicago investment banking operation is headed by managing director William H. Strong, who was chairman of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for several years until Osborn took over the post this year.

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