Tribune Publishing Sets Date for Shareholder Vote on Alden Bid

On Monday, the special committee said it could no longer reasonably expect the competing bid to be superior to Alden’s as it no longer had the necessary financing. It also said it would “carefully consider any further developments,” leaving open an opportunity for Mr. Bainum to come up with other financing.

The battle between Mr. Bainum and Alden to acquire Tribune—home to the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, New York Daily News and other U.S. metro newspapers—could help shape the future of local news in America, an industry in steep decline. Alden, which owns MediaNews Group, publisher of about 70 daily newspapers, has shown an appetite for acquisitions, betting scale and efficiency are the path forward for struggling papers, but some media industry watchers say its aggressive cost-cutting has accelerated the demise of local papers.

Another option is to sell to ultrawealthy benefactors. That was the fate of the Washington Post, which sold to Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, as well as the Boston Globe and Philadelphia Inquirer, which was subsequently donated to the nonprofit Lenfest Institute.

Mr. Bainum, who is from Maryland, has said that if his bid is successful, he intends to break the Tribune company up and sell each of its nine papers to local buyers. His interest is in the Baltimore Sun, which he has said he plans to donate to a nonprofit trust he would create.

Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, who had pledged to contribute over $500 million to the $680 million bid for the newspaper company in return for control of the Chicago Tribune, had a change of heart late last week after reviewing Tribune’s finances, people familiar with the matter said. In a letter to Tribune’s board Saturday, Mr. Bainum said Mr. Wyss was “no longer interested in participating in a potential acquisition of Tribune at the level of equity commitment” that he had previously indicated, but “remains interested in assisting in a potential transaction to make it successful.” Mr. Wyss declined to comment.

Mr. Bainum, the chairman of Choice Hotels International Inc., has said he is prepared to commit $100 million of his own money to the bid, and is working on finding new partners or financing, people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Bainum’s advisers considered the vote deadline a procedural matter that wasn’t unexpected, one of the people said Tuesday.

“I remain committed to pursuing a potential acquisition of Tribune,” Mr. Bainum wrote in his letter to the Tribune board on Saturday. “I remain confident that there is significant interest in joining this effort and expect the necessary arrangements among one or more additional equity financing sources can be completed expeditiously.”

On Sunday, Mason Slaine, a Florida investor who had earlier offered $100 million for the bid, said that he had been in contact with Mr. Bainum’s camp and that he remained interested in possibly taking part. He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Write to Lukas I. Alpert at [email protected]