Tribune Publishing, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and eight other major daily newspapers, announced on Thursday it’s changing its name to “tronc” to better reflect the company’s emphasis on artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The company also announced it will begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange and unveiled a new, rounded, multicolored logo with circuit board details.
In a memo to employees, CEO Justin Dearborn said “tronc” (short for “Tribune Online Content”) would retain its “proud history” while simultaneously “embracing” its digital transformation “with open arms.”
Today, I am pleased to announce another important step in our transformation – the renaming of our Company to tronc, or tribune online content. At our core, we remain a content curation and monetization company focused on creating and distributing premium, verified content across all channels. This rebranding acknowledges our important evolution as a company and captures the essence of our vision for the future.
Tribune Publishing has a proud history, with iconic brands that remain the core of who we are. But as we are all well-aware, the media industry is shifting rapidly, and the path to success requires an innovative new approach and a fundamentally different way of operating.
The new logo and emphasis on technology is emblematic of the company’s new executive leadership. Chairman Michael Ferro, who took over earlier this year, is a Chicago mogul who made his fortune in healthcare technology. Justin Dearborn, “tronc’s” CEO, was previously the top executive at Merge Healthcare, a company that was eventually acquired by IBM and integrated into IBM’s Watson Health Division.
Tronc’s new vice chairman, Patrick Soon-Shiong, is a biotech entrepreneur and investor who hopes to bring his “machine vision” technology to bear on the company’s journalism.
Tribune Publishing’s rebranding comes after a weeks-long fight between the newspaper publisher and Gannett, which has made two separate all-cash offers to acquire the company. But Ferro has rebuffed Gannett’s offers, insisting they undervalue the company, and shored up his position by bringing aboard Soon-Shiong and adopting a so-called “poison pill” plan.
The rebranding was met with mixed reactions on Twitter:
@miriamgottfried awful name. Sounds too much like trump or trunk.
— Molly Zang (@MollyZang) June 2, 2016
https://twitter.com/SemiEmily/status/738474986063552512
https://twitter.com/lms_williams/status/738475502797619200
@Poynter #MakePublishingTroncAgain
— Naomi Eide (@NaomiEide) June 2, 2016
https://twitter.com/margeincharge/status/738480577230278656
https://twitter.com/MattRosoff/status/738481479487868928
Most newsfolks with the tronc news right now. pic.twitter.com/peihjgHeGW
— Kai Teoh (@jkteoh) June 2, 2016
Somewhere, Colonel McCormick is turning over in his grave, somehow finding a way to blame FDR for “tronc,” and then dying again
— Joshua Benton (@jbenton) June 2, 2016
https://twitter.com/dylanmatt/status/738481677677236224
https://twitter.com/BobHagh/status/738480120579510273
https://twitter.com/davidmcswane/status/738479936634130432
Here’s Dearborn’s memo to employees:
Colleagues,
Today, I am pleased to announce another important step in our transformation – the renaming of our Company to tronc, or tribune online content. At our core, we remain a content curation and monetization company focused on creating and distributing premium, verified content across all channels. This rebranding acknowledges our important evolution as a company and captures the essence of our vision for the future.
Tribune Publishing has a proud history, with iconic brands that remain the core of who we are. But as we are all well-aware, the media industry is shifting rapidly, and the path to success requires an innovative new approach and a fundamentally different way of operating.
We are embracing this evolution with open arms and executing a transformation strategy focused on leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to create an interactive and customized user experience to benefit our 60 million monthly users. It has been a busy time – in just a few short months, we have already made significant progress, including:
· Reorganizing the business into new operating and reporting units to increase transparency and drive corporate focus;
· Launching troncX, our content curation and monetization engine, which combines our existing assets with new artificial intelligence (“AI”) technology to accelerate our digital growth; and
· Partnering with Nant Capital and Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong to accelerate the transformation from a legacy news company to a technology and content company.
Renaming the Company is the logical next step in this journey and underscores our commitment to completely transform the business — and the industry — and to continue to best serve our readers and the communities in which we operate.
We will be communicating with you often over the coming weeks about the mechanics of the transition process. Importantly, this change does not impact the name of our proud and iconic brands.
As part of this announcement, we also announced that the Company will be transferring its stock exchange listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. Tronc shares are expected to begin trading as a Nasdaq-listed security under the new ticker symbol “TRNC” on June 20. Nasdaq is the home to many other leading innovators and technology companies, providing the ideal platform for tronc shares.
Separately, you may have also seen that our Annual Meeting of Shareholders was held earlier today in Los Angeles. We are pleased to announce that shareholders elected all of the Company’s nominees. On behalf of the Board, we are grateful for the support of our shareholders, and look forward to continuing to serve their best interests as we execute our strategic plan.
Importantly, the majority of voting shareholders rejected Gannett’s symbolic, feeble and expensive withhold campaign. We cannot speculate as to what Gannett may choose to do as a result of this rejection, but the best thing we can do is to stay focused on the important work we have underway. I sincerely hope that the Gannett shareholders begin to express their displeasure to the Gannett Board regarding the corporate waste that has been perpetrated these past six weeks with their massive spend on this emblematic campaign. Gannet’s interest in our Company only reinforces the high value of our innovation and strategic vision.
This is an incredibly exciting time as we continue to transform our Company and industry. As we start this new chapter as tronc, I want to thank each of you for the hard work and dedication that has allowed us to create a better future for our Company.
Thank you for all that you do.
Best,
Justin Dearborn
