Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/tribune-accepts-8-2-billion-bid-from-real-estate-mogul Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript The Tribune Co. on Monday accepted an $8.2 billion buyout offer from Chicago real estate investor Sam Zell. The NewsHour takes a look at the potential impact of the sale on the media company and newspaper industry. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. GWEN IFILL: After a six-month auction that climaxed in a weekend bidding war, the Chicago-based Tribune Company accepted an $8.2 billion buyout from hometown real estate magnate Sam Zell. The deal beat out a similar offer from two other billionaires, Los Angeles-based Eli Broad and Ron Burkle.The Tribune sale marks the second time in a year that worried investors have forced the sale of a major American newspaper company. Last March, the venerable Knight-Ridder Newspaper chain, owner of the Miami Herald and Charlotte Observer, was purchased by the McClatchy Company, a smaller publisher.The 160-year-old Tribune Company, America's second-largest publisher, will be taken private by Zell, who has never run a newspaper. Tribune's marquee holdings include its namesake, the Chicago Tribune; the Los Angeles Times, which Tribune acquired in 1999; along with New York's Newsday; the Baltimore Sun, and the Hartford Courant in Connecticut.In addition, Tribune also owns 23 television stations and Chicago-based superstation WGN. Tribune's Internet properties include Careerbuilder.com and Cars.com. Tribune also owns baseball's long-suffering Chicago Cubs. ANNOUNCER: Lee is running. Ramirez takes high. Throw down, the tag, and they've got him. And that is all for the Cubs in the first. GWEN IFILL: The company announced today, on Opening Day, that the Cubs will go on the block after this season.Readers and advertisers have been leaving print for the Internet, creating a crisis in the newspaper industry. Tribune was not immune. The company put itself up for sale last fall as its stock price plummeted. Financial and staff cutbacks followed.Two top managers at the Los Angeles Times, editor Dean Baquet and publisher Jeff Johnson, resigned rather than make those cuts. Both argued that shedding staff would lead to shoddy journalism.