The Tribune Company has hired investment banks to weigh a sale of its top newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, the media conglomerate said yesterday, the New York Times DealBook blog reported. The media company, which emerged from bankruptcy late last year, has retained JPMorgan Chase and Evercore Partners as advisers. Speculation has been swirling around the media industry for some time that a number of potential suitors had emerged for the company’s holdings. That group may include the News Corporation, which is in the middle of spinning off its newspaper holdings from its far bigger Fox entertainment operations. That new company may consider acquisitions as a way to gain more clout and reap cost savings.
