Times Mirror to Sell Its Directory Printing Unit
Times Mirror said Thursday that it will sell its Los Angeles-based directory printing business to a unit of GTE as part of a corporate restructuring.
The price for Times Mirror Press wasn’t disclosed, although a spokeswoman for GTE Directories Corp. said that it will be an all-cash purchase. GTE is a longtime customer of Times Mirror Press.
The deal is subject to signing of a definitive contract and is expected to be completed in January. Assets to be acquired by GTE include two buildings totaling 300,000 square feet located on 13 acres of land in the Boyle Heights district of Los Angeles. GTE will also receive Times Mirror Press printing and bindery equipment, paper inventory and printing contracts. Times Mirror Press has 541 employees, who will continue to work for GTE after the deal is consummated.
Part of Restructuring
Not included is Times Mirror Publishing, a subsidiary of Times Mirror Press that was formed in June to combine various non-directory printing businesses, including business registries and mailing labels. Times Mirror Publishing doesn’t have any printing facilities and will continue to rely on outside contractors, said a spokeswoman for Times Mirror, a Los Angeles-based media company that publishes The Times and other newspapers.
Commenting on the sale, Times Mirror Chairman and Chief Executive Robert F. Erburu said: “Times Mirror has been focusing its attention on print media, electronic media and information-based, professional publishing over the last three years, and this move is the final step in our restructuring program.”
Key Role
That restructuring included the sale of struggling newspapers in Dallas and Denver, the acquisition of the Baltimore Sun newspaper, and the purchase of several magazines, including the National Journal, Broadcasting and Field & Stream.
Sales and revenue figures for Times Mirror Press were unavailable, although the Times Mirror spokeswoman said the business has been profitable.
“It’s really not a significant part of (Times Mirror’s) business,” said Washington-based newspaper analyst John Morton. However, Times Mirror Press played a key role in the history of the Los Angeles Times. It was founded in 1873 as the Mirror Printing and Binding House, primarily a commercial printer that also published the Weekly Mirror newspaper. In 1881, the firm agreed to print a new daily newspaper, the Los Angeles Daily Times.
After The Times was abandoned by its original publishers, the printers continued its publication and hired as its editor Gen. Harrison Gray Otis. In 1884, Otis and Col. H. H. Boyce purchased the printer and the newspaper, incorporating them as the Times Mirror Co.
