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Sell the Los Angeles Times, Devin Leonard advises the Tribune Company.
The Chandlers of L.A. will never be confused with the Sulzbergers of New York or the Grahams of Washington, D.C., who put journalistic quality over economic self-interest...So why should Tribune take strategic advice from the Chandlers? Well, because the Chandlers, unsympathetic though they may be, have it right: The strategy behind Tribune's purchase of Times Mirror was deeply flawed....
Tribune should sell the underperforming Los Angeles Times. Publicly traded newspaper companies might not touch it. But private buyers would pay a high price. David Geffen and Eli Broad have made no secret of their interest. The sale could raise $1 billion for Tribune and would stabilize its earnings. Most important, it would strongly signal to investors that it's no longer business as usual in Chicago.
Also in Timesland: Anti-LAT blogger Patterico asked to interview Times editor Dean Baquet about the paper's decision to run the Swift program story — and is surprised that Baquet didn't jump at the chance to feed the blog's ideological attacks.