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LANDMARK SELLING LAS VEGAS, NASHVILLE TVs

Landmark Communications Inc. said Tuesday it will sell its KLAS Las Vegas and WTVF Nashville, but is still mulling options for its other businesses, including cable television's The Weather Channel.
By
Associated Press,

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Landmark Communications Inc. said Tuesday it will sell its two broadcast television stations in Las Vegas and Nashville, Tenn. but is still mulling options for its other businesses, including cable television's The Weather Channel.

The family-owned company said it has completed a strategic review of its television broadcasting businesses and will sell KLAS Las Vegas and WTVF Nashville with the help of Lehman Brothers.

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Landmark's vice chairman, Richard F. Barry III, declined to disclose possible sales prices or identify potential buyers.

The Norfolk-based company still is evaluating options for its other businesses, including cable television's The Weather Channel and its flagship daily newspaper, The Virginian-Pilot, also in Norfolk, Barry said.

Asked when he expects the evaluations to be completed, Barry said, "We're working as hard as we can."

The two stations to be sold are CBS affiliates. Each is the leading television station in its market, providing 30 to 40 hours of local news programming per week, Landmark said.

Landmark executives have not said why the company was considering selling its assets. Frank Batten Jr., Landmark's chairman and CEO, has controlling interest and has said he made the decision to explore the sale, with input from his entire family.

Analysts have estimated The Weather Channel could fetch up to $5 billion, especially if coupled with its popular Web site, .http://www.weather.com

Landmark, which had an estimated $1.75 billion in 2006 sales, employs about 12,000, according to Hoover's, a business reference service. It is parent to nine daily papers and more than 100 nondaily newspapers and specialty publications and also owns Norfolk-based Dominion Enterprises, a national chain of classified-ad publications.

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has said he is considering making an offer for The Pilot, which he has criticized for its coverage of him and his activities.

Robertson, founder and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, said the newspaper could provide internships for journalism students at Regent University, the private Christian school he founded. Both CBN and Regent are in nearby Virginia Beach.

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