CINCINNATI (AP) - A restructured E.W. Scripps Co. will emerge in 2008, one that its designated chief executive says can grow.
'Long term, what you want to do is be a player in more markets,' Rich Boehne, currently Scripps' chief operating officer, said in an AP interview. Scripps recently announced plans to split into two companies, with current CEO Kenneth Lowe to head the new Scripps Networks Interactive.
E.W. Scripps, to be headed by Boehne, will include newspapers in 17 U.S. markets and 10 broadcast television stations. While the new company gets newer, growing businesses such as the Food Network and HGTV, Boehne said he is bullish on the future for local news on TV and newspapers and particularly in their online components.
'The growth opportunities are probably more immediate on the cable network side, but the wonderful change and chaos and lack of clarity in local media suggests that there's opportunity,' Boehne said.
'When I'm in the newsrooms, what I preach constantly is in today's environment, it's much less about who, what, when and where. It's about why and what's next,' he said. 'In an environment where you do have a multitude of voices, the opportunity to bring context and color and perspective is I think our real role.'
He didn't rule out acquiring more newspapers, but said the economics are tricky and that Scripps will be cautious.
'At this point, it might matter less whether you enter through newspaper or you enter through TV,' he said. Where you end up 20 years from now may be somewhere on the Internet platform or a little bit of both.'
Besides The Post newspapers closing in its Cincinnati home on Dec. 31, Scripps also this year announced it would close the Albuquerque Tribune if there is no buyer. The president of a public relations firm in the New Mexico city has said he's in a partnership seeking to buy the newspaper. Scripps two years ago closed The Birmingham (Ala.) Post-Herald.
'I have seen the changes in the business up real close,' said Boehne, 51, a former Post reporter whose first summer job was selling Post subscriptions over the telephone at age 15.
When the split was announced, Scripps' stock shot up more than 8 percent, and analysts have generally approved the plan, expected to be carried out in June. There has been sporadic speculation over the past year that Scripps would shed the newspaper business the Scripps family has been in since 1878.
'That's very unlikely. The family has shown to date no interest in getting out of the legacy business,' Boehne said. 'They like the business a lot and they're built on a heritage of public service.
'They've been around 130 years,' he said. 'Apparently they've made a few good calls.'
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.