Times Mirror May Sell Its Newsprint Unit

Times Mirror Co. is discussing the sale of its ailing newsprint and forest-products division to Boise Cascade Corp. for an undisclosed amount, the companies said Friday.

The division is the second-largest source of revenue for Times Mirror, Los Angeles-based parent of the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers. For the first nine months of 1984, the latest figures available, the division accounted for 16% of the company’s $2.06 billion in revenue. Newspaper publishing accounted for 52%.

The newsprint and forest-products group managed to make an operating profit of $1.3 million in the first nine months of 1984 despite a $5.32-million loss in the third quarter. Because of a sustained slump in the housing industry, however, it lost substantial sums every year from 1981 through 1983.

Sale of the division would include a long-term contract for Boise Cascade to supply newsprint to Times Mirror’s newspapers, the companies said. A spokesman for Boise Cascade said that the Boise, Ida.-based wood-products company does not know when a decision on the sale will be made.