Times Mirror Shows Old Rules May No Longer Apply : Communications: In merging its cable TV assets with Cox Enterprises, the media company is repositioning itself as a ‘content provider’ for the burgeoning information age.

By merging its cable TV assets with Cox Enterprises, Times Mirror Co. is signaling that the old rules that shaped the diversified media conglomerates of the past 30 years may no longer apply in an era of rapid technological change in communications.

After decades of following a cautious path and staying close to its publishing roots, Times Mirror is dramatically repositioning itself as a “content provider” for the coming age in which information and entertainment will be received over everything from computers to interactive TV’s.

“The fundamental decision is that we want to focus on the content side,” said Robert F. Erburu, 63, chairman, president and chief executive of Times Mirror. “That’s the strength we’re best able to build upon in the future.”

As Times Mirror executives envision it, becoming a content provider means everything from launching and investing in cable TV networks such as The Outdoor Channel to using the information gathered by its newspapers and magazines for new programming services and ideas.

The emphasis on content also means that Times Mirror does not have to worry about which “platform”--cable TV, telephone lines, wireless personal communications services or satellites--delivers the information into the home and can become a provider to all of them.

Times Mirror’s decision to spin off its 1.2-million subscriber cable TV assets to Cox comes at a time when all major media companies are looking at what role they will play in the coming so-called information superhighway, where it’s expected that consumers will be able to order movies-on-demand, play video games and shop electronically over their cable TV.

Media companies such as Times Mirror also face a thundering herd of competition, from local phone companies to giant entertainment conglomerates and computer firms, which all want to cash in on ways to deliver information to the consumer at home and work.

The plan, perhaps most significantly, indicates that Times Mirror is bearish about the company’s long-term prospects as a cable TV operator, and would rather provide information that cable firms, telephone companies and other electronic distributors can sell to the public.

“It pretty clearly tells you that Times Mirror feels the future of the business is providing content into the business-oriented distribution market,” said James D. Dougherty of Dean Witter Discover & Co. The company believes, he added, that “it’s better for Times Mirror to be out of the (cable) business when they can get a good price for it, and when they feel the returns on cable are just going to shrink over a long period of time.”

Erburu, however, said that making the capital investments to build the broad-band infrastructure would use up Times Mirror resources at a time when it wanted to invest the money elsewhere.

Once a diversified media conglomerate, Times Mirror in recent years has refocused on its core business of big-city newspapers and professional-textbook publishing, as well as making some forays into new media technologies.

Such a strategy is unusual in the clubby world of media empires, where the conventional wisdom has been that stakes in as many areas as possible--newspapers, broadcasting, cable TV, magazine and book publishing--is the best way to hedge bets and ensure growth.

The shift in Times Mirror’s strategy also has been accompanied by a move away from a family-run business to a multibillion-dollar corporation run by professional managers.

Although the founding Chandler family still controls more than 50% of Times Mirror’s voting stock and has four seats on its 14-member board, the family has not been involved in the top management for a number of years. Otis Chandler retired as publisher of The Times in 1980.

Beginning in the 1960s, after it went public, Times Mirror aggressively expanded, buying TV stations, cable TV systems, major newspapers, magazines, and professional book publishing companies. The strategy paralleled that of other media firms.

Indeed, over a 30-year period Times Mirror spent $2.2 billion in cash and stock on acquisitions and another $3.4 billion in capital expenditures.

The acquisitions propelled Times Mirror into the leading ranks among media companies and earned it a spot as No. 135 on the Fortune 500 as recently as 1991. But Times Mirror’s diversification strategy included mixed results along the way.

The company eventually unloaded unprofitable newspapers in Dallas and Denver, taking a $65-million charge against earnings in 1991.

A trade magazine bought in 1987 for $75 million was sold four years later for $32 million. And last year Times Mirror sold its four network affiliate TV stations for $320 million, only to have the buyer sell them six months later for a considerably higher price.

Not surprisingly, these results coupled with the economic downturn in the markets where Times Mirror owns newspapers--advertising at The Times is off $150 million since 1991--have made the company’s stock one of the lower performers among media companies over the last two years.

Although the stock market achieved record highs, Times Mirror’s stock price has languished between $25 and $38 per share since 1990, far off its 1987 peak of $52.

The spotty record in diversifying--a notable exception has been the specialty book and professional publishing division, which now accounts for one-third of Times Mirror’s revenues and more than half its operating profits--and sagging stock price has led to speculation that the Chandler family wanted to take cash out of the company.

Most of the Chandler holdings in Times Mirror are locked up in trusts that cannot be disbursed until sometime toward the end of the first quarter of the next century. Tom Untermann, general counsel of Times Mirror, said that it is not anticipated that the preferred shares that the Chandlers Trusts receives as part of the deal will be sold.

Erburu said that, “The Chandler Trusts were solidly behind this arrangement, as are the outside directors. There’s unanimity among the Chandler Trusts, the management, and independent directors.”

Times staff writers James Peltz and Amy Harmon contributed to this story.

Otis Chandler was chairman of the board of Times Mirror from 1981 - 1985 and was chairman of the executive committee of the Times Mirror board of directors from 1986 - 1991. He remains a member of the board of directors.