Times Mirror Explores New Ventures

Times Mirror Co. Chairman Robert F. Erburu told shareholders Tuesday that the media company is exploring new business initiatives that include interactive technology, niche television programming and expansion in overseas markets.

Such ventures are vital to the strategy behind Times Mirror’s recent decision to sell its four broadcast TV stations. “We concluded that for the longer term, Times Mirror is better served to direct its resources to our other business areas and new business initiatives which we are exploring,” Erburu explained.

Although 95% of the company’s revenue still comes from the United States, Erburu noted that international operations have grown more than three times as rapidly as domestic sales. Times Mirror’s assets include the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and other newspapers, publishing and cable television interests.

“We want all of our new businesses to be solidly on the ground overseas or to have obvious and powerful international potential,” the Times Mirror chairman said at the annual meeting held at the company’s Los Angeles headquarters.

In professional publishing, for example, Times Mirror’s Jeppesen Sanderson unit already publishes aeronautical charts and data used worldwide. Now it is developing a three-dimensional, computer-enhanced landing aid for pilots. The product was demonstrated in a slide show by Times Mirror Vice President Cecilia McRoskey, who was recruited last year to lead the corporation’s information technology efforts.

McRoskey also demonstrated an electronic television program guide called StarSight, which is being developed by a company in which the Times Mirror cable TV division has partial ownership.

“New technologies will not necessarily replace traditional print forms of communication,” Erburu said. “More likely, the new and the old will coexist in the marketplace, with each holding important positions.”

As reported in April, the chairman said that the company’s first-quarter results were better than anticipated. Erburu said the results were largely because of gains by the professional publishing and cable television units. He reiterated the company’s cautious outlook for the remainder of the year, however, citing the re-regulation of cable rates and “continued softness in advertising revenues, particularly at the Los Angeles Times.”

Also at the annual meeting, Joan A. Payden was elected a Times Mirror director. Payden is president and chief executive of Payden & Rygel, a Los Angeles investment management firm she co-founded that manages more than $14 billion in assets.