Tribune sells Southern Connecticut Newspapers to Gannett

The Tribune Publishing Company has sold its Southern Connecticut Newspapers to Gannett Co. Inc. for $73 million.

The sale includes The Advocate (Stamford, CT) and Greenwich Times. It does not include real estate in Stamford and Greenwich that Tribune Publishing will sell separately after a transitional lease to Gannett.

With this sale, Tribune Publishing has exceeded its goal of selling $500 million in non-core assets as part of its performance improvement plan enacted last year.

In addition to Southern Connecticut Newspapers, sales completed since mid-2006 include television stations in Boston, Atlanta and Albany; 2.8 million shares of Time Warner common stock; and a Los Angeles Times printing facility.

The Connecticut titles were sold so that the publishing company could focus on larger publishing and interactive businesses.

Tribune publishing acquired The Advocate and Greenwich Times in June 2000 as part of its acquisition of The Times Mirror Company.

In the publishing sector, Tribune's leading daily newspapers include the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday (Long Island, NY), The Sun (Baltimore, MD), South Florida Sun Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel and Hartford Courant.