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Lee Enterprises is newest on block; would-be sellers hope for quick deals
Sellers of TV stations are flocking to market. hoping to cash in on the consolidation allowed under the FCC's relaxation of its duopoly rules.
The latest group to put itself on the market is Lee Enterprises, which owns nine network affiliates and seven satellite TV stations.
Given the FCC's August 1999 action allowing the ownership of two TV stations per market, "we concluded that the relatively small size of our holdings eventually would limit our ability to control our future," Lee Chairman Richard D. Gottlieb said last Wednesday in a statement. "In the long term. [the stations] will be even more successful if they are part of a larger broadcasting group." The TV market has proved soft for Lee in at least the past two quarters.
Instead of TV, Lee wants to expand its publishing and online holdings and already...