[Deborah Marchini, Cnn Anchor:] Two leading newspaper companies are merging.
[David Haffenreffer, Cnn Anchor:] And if all goes well, the deal will put some of America's top newspapers under one corporate roof. With more ink on the making of this new inc., here's Christine Romans.
[Christine Romans, Cnn Correspondent:] Chicago is really a Tribune town. You know, the beautiful Tribune Tower sits right there in downtown, overlooking the Chicago River, and now it's going to be a Tribune and Times Mirror town because it looks as though TMC and TRB, those are the ticker symbols of Times Mirror and the Tribune company, are going to be joining forces. The "LA Times" announcing on its on-line edition or reporting, rather, in its on-line edition that they will be coming together in a deal worth $6.38 billion or $6.46 billion, depending on which report you take a look at. These are two newspaper companies that together will be the third largest newspaper company in the country behind Knight Ridder, which owns Gannett, and also behind what's the number two? Anybody remember off the top of your head?
[Marchini:] No.
[Romans:] Completely blanked out.
[Haffenreffer:] Gannett and Knight Ridder.
[Romans:] Gannett and Knight Ridder, that's right. OK, sorry. So GCI is one ticker symbol there; KRI is the other ticker symbol. And TRB, $8.8 billion is its market cap; it owns the "Chicago Tribune," the "Florida Sentinel" papers, 22 TV stations, and the Chicago Cubs. And that stock actually we're closely watching that one lately. Newspaper stocks, in particular, had a nice run-up through the end of the year, but then at the beginning of this newspaper the index of newspaper stocks, at least, has come off significantly, and some of these stocks are trading near their 52-week lows; among them, TMC, which is the Times Mirror company, $5.3 billion is its market cap; it owns "LA Times," "Baltimore Sun," the "Hartford Current," and the "Long Island New York Newsday." So it will be very interesting to see what happens what kind of regulatory issues there might be with this kind of a merger, considering the fact that, now, this a merger of this magnitude would include a television station in the LA area and the "LA Times." So that could be...
[Marchini:] Well, clearly, they think the stocks are cheap, having run down.
[Romans:] Yes, perhaps, yes.
[Marchini:] Thanks, Christine.