Goodson papers are not for sale p. 23

By: George Garneau

THE NEWSPAPER DIVISION of the late broadcast pioneer Mark Goodson's empire is not for sale with its TV game show operations, according to a Goodson Newspapers executive.
"All that is potentially for sale is the television production business," said Roy Cockburn, vice president for labor of the Lawrenceville, N.J.-based Goodson Newspaper Group, whose eight dailies and controlled by three weekly groups are lead by the 56,000-circulation Daily Record, Parsippany, N.J.
He said the company is owned by Goodson's estate, which is controlled by three executors who decided to seek a buyer for Mark Goodson Productions, the 47-year-old producer of such game show classics as What's My Line?, To Tell the Truth, The Price is Right and Family Feud.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that the estate had hired investment banker Lazard Freres to contact prospective buyers about paying $100 million to $200 million for Goodson Productions, which the Guinness Book of World Records identifies as the world's most prolific TV game show producer, having produced 39,500 shows.
Mark Goodson was 77 when he died in 1992 leaving a fortune Forbes magazine valued at $450 million. His son, Jonathan, is president and CEO of Goodson Productions, where he has worked for 20 years.
"We have no plans to sell and we hope to be in business for a long time," Cockburn said of the newspapers, which are managed independently and are the estate's only other business asset.