Tribune Newspaper Co. name change reflects its expanding interests p.

By: Mark Fitzgerald

Talking to Alternate Postal Delivery franchises a few months ago, Tribune Newspaper Co. president and chief executive John W. Madigan mused that the subsidiary might someday change its name.
"Maybe it will be something like 'Tribune Publishing,' " he said.
"Someday" arrived with the July 6 announcement by Tribune Co. of separate agreements to acquire Compton's Multimedia Publishing Group, a publisher of interactive multimedia titles on the CD-ROM format, and Contemporary Books, a publisher of self-help and educational consumer books.
To reflect the growing scope of the wholly owned Tribune Co. subsidiary, Tribune Newspaper Co. will be renamed Tribune Publishing Co., Madigan said.
"Compton's and Contemporary Books will allow us to expand more broadly and to share resources for distribution both in print and interactive multimedia," Madigan said. "Our new name, Tribune Publishing, more aptly identifies our business."
These two relatively small purchases continue a recent Tribune Co. trend of expanding into electronic information creation and delivery.
The company already has investments in providers such as America Online, a consumer-oriented electronic bulletin board and Picture Network International, an on-line photo archive.
Tribune Co. said it will purchase Compton's from Encyclopedia Britannica for approximately $57 million in cash.
Contemporary Books will be purchased for approximately $40 million in cash and Tribune stock, Tribune Co. said.
Both transactions are expected to be completed in the third quarter of 1993.
Besides its well-known encyclopedia, Compton's publishes numerous reference, business information, education and entertainment titles in electronic formats, principally the CD-ROM compact disk format that incorporates text, graphics, audio and video.
Compton's publishes 31 CD-ROM titles and 16 floppy disk titles on its own and has the rights to 185 more titles from other publishers. Under an affiliate-label program, it distributes another 81 CD-ROM titles.
Compton's also owns a proprietary technology, trademarked SmarTrieve, that organizes and presents information in multimedia formats.
"This acquisition is an excellent fit for Tribune's information and entertainment business," said Scott C. Smith, Tribune senior vice president/
development. "We see Compton's as a natural extension of our publishing business to include not only print but multimedia as well."
Revenues for Carlsbad, Calif.-based Compton's have grown at an annual rate of more than 50% over the past three years. In the 12 months through June, revenue was approximately $28 million.
Chicago-based Contemporary Books is a major publisher of self-help, adult basic-education and other consumer niche books. It has 450 titles in print.
Tribune said it will merge its two-year-old Orlando, Fla.-based book publishing business, which has published 60 entertainment and "practical-use" titles, with Contemporary's operations.