Hearst Weighs Purchase of News America Syndicate

Hearst Corp. is negotiating to purchase Irvine-based News America Syndicate and a deal could come as early as next week, it was learned.

Media magnate Rupert Murdoch put the syndicate up for sale in September with a price tag of about $24 million, according to a company official. It’s unclear just how much the operation will eventually fetch, but sources close to the negotiations said that an offer of $17.5 million from another syndicate has already been rejected.

Hearst Corp., which owns the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and several other metropolitan newspapers as well as magazines and broadcast properties, has been expanding its syndication operations, acquiring the Cowles syndicate earlier this year.

A combination of Hearst’s King Features Syndicate and News America would solidify King’s position as the world’s largest syndicator of comics, editorial cartoons, advice columns and opinion page essays.

King Features already distributes about 130 features to about 3,000 newspapers worldwide. News America distributes about 85 features to roughly the same number of newspapers.

Hearst declined comment on the negotiations, and officials at News Corp., parent of News America Syndicate, did not return telephone calls.

King apparently is concerned with how to mesh some of News America’s talent with its own, according to syndicate officials familiar with the negotiations. For example, King syndicates the work of five editorial page cartoonists. News America syndicates Herbert Block’s and Bill Mauldin’s cartoons in addition to seven other cartoonists. King has a money column written by Peter Weaver; News America has a money column written by Susan Bondy.

Because the top five newspaper feature syndicates are either privately owned or part of larger companies, an exact ranking of their size is difficult. Rankings are further made difficult by some of the syndicates’ expanding interests in licensing and related activities.

But many industry officials said that there would be no question about King’s dominance following a merger with News America.