Belo’s board of directors unanimously approved a plan Oct.1 to create separate TV and newspaper businesses, spinning off the newspaper business into a publicly traded company called A.H. Belo.
Both the new A. H. Belo and Belo will have headquarters in Dallas. Series A common shares of both companies are expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
The new A. H. Belo will own and operate “The Dallas Morning News,” “The Providence Journal” in Providence, RI, and “The Press-Enterprise” in Riverside, CA, serving the Inland Empire region of the state. It also will manage the Web sites associated with the newspapers.
Following the split, Belo will be one of the largest pure-play publicly traded TV station companies in the nation. Belo will own and operate 20 TV stations and their associated Web sites. It also will own two 24-hour regional cable news channels: Northwest Cable News (NWCN) and Texas Cable News (TXCN).
The transaction is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2008, subject to customary regulatory approvals.
For more information, visit www.belo.com.
