photo of Scripps building in Cincinnati
Careers Investors

Scripps and Howard trusts to make public offering

May 14, 1998
 

CINCINNATI, Ohio – The E. W. Scripps Company expects to file a registration statement next week with the Securities and Exchange Commission covering a proposed public offering of 6.3 million Class A Common shares, plus over-allotment options.The company will not receive proceeds from the sale.Of the shares to be sold, 3.5 million are owned by the Edward W. Scripps Trust, controlling shareholder of the company. The Scripps trust has advised the company that the decision to sell shares is in keeping with its long-term effort to diversify the trust’s assets. The trust’s most recent sale of Scripps shares was in late 1993.The remaining 2.8 million shares to be sold are owned by the Jack R. Howard Trust, which was established by Jack R. Howard, a retired chief executive officer of the company. Mr. Howard died in March 1998.The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus.The company’s Class A Common shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SSP.” There is no public market for the company’s other class of stock – Common Voting.Current ownership by the selling trusts: Class A Common (SSP) Common VotingTotal outstanding 61.6 million 19.2 million Edward W. Scripps Trust 53.0 % 83.5 %Jack R. Howard Trust 5.4 % 0.9 % The E. W. Scripps Company’s major operations include:· Daily newspapers in 20 markets;· Network-affiliated television stations in nine markets;· Two cable TV networks – Home & Garden Television (100 percent owned) and the Food Network (56 percent owned);· United Media, a worldwide licensing and syndication company whose characters include PEANUTS AND DILBERT;· Cinetel Productions, a leading producer of primarily non-fiction programming for the cable network industry.