Charles Koch, chairman of the board and CEO of Koch Industries, told The Wichita Eagle in an interview published late Tuesday that his company may put in a bid for the Tribune Co.’s newspapers, which include The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune.
“It’s possible,” Koch told the Eagle. “It’s not on the front burner, but it’s possible.”
Koch Industries’ interest in the Tribune Co. newspapers has been rumored for weeks. But Koch told the Eagle any plans are at “square one.”
“We are at square one on that,” he said. “There are tremendous changes going on in media, in taking media as a whole, all forms of communication. We’re back at square one analyzing where is the most change, where are the best opportunities for new entrants to come in and add value? And so newspapers are one, but there are all sorts of others. There’s the Internet, there’s TV. There’s entertainment. And so we don’t know where we’ll end up on that.”
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last month, Koch confirmed that his company was looking at the possibility of acquiring newspapers, but he declined to comment on any possible Tribune Co. bid.
“There is a need for focus on real news, not news with an agenda or news that is really editorializing,” Koch told the Journal.
