Scripps plans to sell Albuquerque Tribune

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - E.W. Scripps Co said on Tuesday it would try to sell The Albuquerque Tribune, but would shut down the newspaper if a buyer could not be found.

The company hired Broadwater & Associates, an investment banking firm, to help it find a buyer for the New Mexico afternoon daily, which is published Monday through Saturday.

Scripps told the newspaper's 45 editorial employees of its decision, which the Cincinnati-based company said was made because few people read afternoon papers anymore.

"Unfortunately, readers in Albuquerque, as in nearly all cities across America, are choosing other media alternatives," Scripps Chief Operating Officer Rich Boehne said in a statement.

Scripps is seeking a qualified buyer, meaning the purchaser must meet with U.S. Justice Department approval. The Tribune is published under a government-approved joint operating agreement with The Albuquerque Journal, a morning daily paper.

The agreement was created in 1933 during the Great Depression. It is set to expire in 2022.

The number of U.S. papers published in the afternoon has fallen in the past half-century, hurt by a number of advances in media from the rise of morning papers and evening television news, to the continued ascendancy of the Internet.

The Tribune has a paid circulation of about 11,000 copies daily, down from 42,000 in 1988, Scripps spokesman Tim Stautberg said.