Tronc trolling for The Wrap & more: sources

TRONC

— the former Tribune Publishing — is on the prowl for digital acquisitions in the sports, lifestyle, entertainment, financial and health niches, sources tell Media Ink.

Recent efforts have Tronc eyeing Sharon Waxman’s Hollywood site, The Wrap, and Jim Cramer’s financial site, The Street, among other targets., sources said.

Late last year, the company added The Cube, a sports-streaming site along with its founder, William Uniowski, as a general manager.

It also added Spanfeller Media — owner of the Daily Meal and Active Times — to its stable with founder Jim Spanfeller as a Tronc VP.

This week, the company announced that Timothy Knight, a onetime CEO of Newsday and a cofounder of cars.com, joined the company as the president and CEO of the division known as Tronc X, overseeing its digital content and commerce business.

The digital push is part of the reason controlling shareholder and Chairman Michael Ferro fought off the proposed takeover by Gannett last year for the struggling newspaper company that includes the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun.

For the full year, the company said Wednesday its revenue declined 4 percent, to $1.61 billion, but its swung to a profit of $6.3 million from a loss of $2.8 million in 2015.

Waxman says of Tronc’s interest in her company that it is “not true” — but she declined further comment.

The Street, which has seen its stock price tumble below the $1 mark in recent months, is in a more complicated situation.

A $55 million investment in the boom years by Technology Crossover Ventures gave the VC firm a position as a preferred stockholder.

The $55 million must be satisfied before a deal can be done.

But The Street’s stock on Thursday closed at 79 cents, giving it a market capitalization of only $28.2 million. Until a new deal is hatched to get TCV’s preferred stock converted to common stock, a deal for the property is complicated if not impossible.

Retire hires

Say what you will about baby boomers, but they still have an appetite for the written word.

That’s why AARP The Magazine is expanding its editorial staff with up to 15 new hires even as most major publishers retrench.

Robert Love, VP and editor-inchief, said this week he is opening the first-ever New York City office for the title, which is mainly based in Washington, DC.

“If you’re looking for the best publishing talent, New York is the only place to be,” said editorial director Myrna Blyth, who hired Love in mid-2013.

In the past year, Love, the former Rolling Stone editor, cashed in on his past connections to score a sitdown with press-shy Bob Dylan — and landed exclusive cover stories on Diane Keaton, Warren Beatty, Cyndi Lauper and Helen Mirren.

“We’re also hiring a dozen writers and multimedia producers in Wash- ington,” said Love. And he’s also scouting for a new Los Angelesbased celebrity wrangler to replace Meg Grant, who he said is stepping away from the West Coast editor job after eight years.

The magazine — which boasts a very muscular 22.5 million paid circulation — bucked the industry trend with a 1 percent increase in print revenue and 5 percent increase in digital revenue, he said.

Moves at Home

Ann Maine is stepping down from Traditional Home after 15 years as its editor-in-chief and 35 years with the publisher. Jilll Waage, who was the director of digital content and products for Better Homes and Gardens (the Meredith flagship), moves into the job.

In other changes officially unveiled Thursday, Meredith said that Jennifer Darling is the new editor-in-chief of All Recipes — but Media Ink readers already knew that back on Feb. 3.

As we noted, Darling replaced Cheryl Brown, who moved to Family Circle as E-I-C, replacing the ousted Linda Fears.

‘Not my prob’

Graydon Carter is cutting us loose.

The Vanity Fair editor is busy getting ready to host the magazine’s post-Oscars party Sunday night.

If you e-mailed him in recent days, you know he left a variety of contacts from corporate to Oscarrelated so as not to leave you hanging. But he added to the auto- response message: “If this is about the current political situation, I’m sorry, but you’re on your own.”

Simple rehab

Leslie Ivers, who jumped from Cosmo to become the new editorin-chief of Real Simple, continues to reshape the masthead with Hearst talent. Geraldson “Gino” Chua is the latest. He is joining as art director, jumping from Hearst-owned Esquire, where he was deputy art director, replacing Alyce Jones, who is out. Two other staffers also left RS this month and have yet to be replaced.