3 Publishing Firms Still in Running for Van Nuys Paper, Sources Say : Tribune Co. Trims List of Daily News Bidders

Tribune Co. of Chicago has narrowed the list of potential buyers for the Daily News in Van Nuys to as few as three after a preliminary round of bidding and will receive final bids at the end of the month, sources involved in the negotiations said Monday.

One of the highest bidders in the first round, some sources said, was Chronicle Publishing Co., owner of the San Francisco Chronicle. The sources said Tribune also has asked at least two others for second bids, including Ingersoll Publications Co., a Connecticut-based newspaper chain, and A. H. Belo Corp., publisher of the Dallas Morning News.

Tribune Co. is selling the Daily News, circulation 150,403, as a result of its pending acquisition of KTLA-TV Channel 5 in Los Angeles for $510 million. Federal regulations prohibit owning a television station and a newspaper in the same market area.

The Federal Communications Commission has granted Tribune Co. 18 months after completion of the KTLA purchase in which to sell the paper.

Tribune Co. organized a two-tier bidding system for the sale, in which interested parties made preliminary bids Oct. 11 to demonstrate their “level of interest” based on detailed financial information supplied by the New York investment banking firm of Salomon Bros.

One newspaper executive who entered an initial bid said Salomon Bros. told him that Tribune Co. “would not consider any bids under $100 million.” The executive, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified, said: “Salomon Bros. told me they thought they could get $150 million for the paper.”

Sources said the figures received in that first round of bidding may have disappointed both Tribune and Salomon.

The initial round of bids was based only on the written prospectus supplied by Salomon Bros., not on a firsthand look at the Daily News, the sources said.

Only those suitors whose bids were deemed acceptable were invited to tour the plant and meet with Tribune officials, the sources said.

The Daily News itself reported last week that Chronicle, Ingersoll and Belo toured the plant.

Leo Hindery, chief officer for planning and finance at the Chronicle, declined to discuss any figures.

“We continue to be one of several parties interested,” Hindery said. “We in no way have made a (final) bid. It would just be crazy to do so even five minutes before everyone else. We are a couple of weeks away from knowing.”

Ingersoll President Thomas P. Geyer confirmed Monday that “we have visited, we have a bid under consideration, but we haven’t made any consideration on whether we will actually make an offer or not.”

Belo President Robert W. Decherd said: “As a rule, we just don’t discuss any kind of prospective acquisitions.”

Tribune Co. spokesman Bill Plunkett declined to comment on any negotiations involving the Daily News.

In addition to the San Francisco Chronicle, which has a circulation of 545,622, Chronicle Publishing owns the Daily Pantagraph in Bloomington, Ill., circulation 52,905. The family-owned company also owns three television stations and several cable-television franchises.

Belo owns the Dallas Morning News as well as six suburban daily newspapers in the Dallas area and several television and radio stations.

Ingersoll, based in Lakeville, Conn., publishes the Orange Coast Daily Pilot in Costa Mesa, the Glendale News-Press and 22 other daily and 50 weekly newspapers around the country.

As a result of the KTLA purchase, Tribune Co. also must dispose of cable-TV systems serving Lancaster, Lakewood, California City and Edwards Air Force Base.

The company, a diversified communications concern, publishes the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, three papers in California and three in Florida.