The Wall Street Journal-20080205-Owner Puts Chicago Sun-Times Up for Sale

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Owner Puts Chicago Sun-Times Up for Sale

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Associated Press

CHICAGO -- Sun-Times Media Group Inc., parent of the Chicago Sun- Times, put the city's second-largest daily newspaper and "any or all" of the company's assets up for sale yesterday amid a crippling decline in advertising and sales at its newspapers.

The company said its board also is looking at other alternatives to increase shareholder value, including joint ventures or strategic partnerships.

Important shareholders in the struggling company, which also owns dozens of smaller Chicago-area papers, have been pushing for its sale to increase a lagging stock price caused by losses of readers and advertisers to the Internet.

To strengthen its attractiveness to prospective buyers, Sun-Times Media has been slashing costs for the past two months to cut annual operating costs by $50 million.

The company said the board has established a committee comprised of directors Gordon Paris, Graham Savage and Raymond Seitz to oversee the strategic process, with Mr. Seitz serving as the panel's chairman.