Gannett, Scripps look at Pulitzer Inc.

Gannett and Pulitzer already are well-acquainted.
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Newspaper publishers Gannett Co. and E.W. Scripps Co. plan to take a look at Pulitzer Inc., the company exploring a possible sale some analysts expect to fetch about $1.5 billion, officials with Gannett and Cincinnati-based Scripps said.
"We'd obviously be interested" in the publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and more than a dozen other newspapers, Gannett chairman, president and CEO Douglas McCorkindale said Wednesday during an investor conference sponsored by the UBS investment bank in New York.
Still, McCorkindale said, McLean, Va.-based Gannett -- the nation's largest newspaper publisher -- would be a disciplined buyer, unwilling to overpay.
"What we are seeing are some very aggressive prices on stand-alone properties, off the charts from our point of view," McCorkindale said without being specific. "On the television side, the asking prices seem to be quite a bit higher than what we think are reasonable."
Tim Stautberg, a spokesman for Scripps, told Scripps' Cincinnati Post for Thursday's editions that "we take a look at everything that comes up, but to infer that there is more interest than that is stretching."
Arizona agreement
Scripps' holdings also include several fast-growing cable networks, including the Food Network and Home & amp; Garden Television.
Gannett, with its flagship publication USA Today as the country's largest-selling daily, also owns 21 television stations, including St. Louis' KSDK-TV.
Though Gannett until Wednesday had been publicly silent about any interest in St. Louis-based Pulitzer, some already broadly viewed it as a possible suitor because Gannett and Pulitzer were well-acquainted, including their joint operating agreement in Tucson, Ariz., between Pulitzer's Arizona Daily Star and Gannett's Tucson Citizen newspapers.
Pulitzer, with $423 million in revenue last year among the smallest newspaper companies with publicly traded shares, announced last month it has retained Goldman, Sachs & amp; Co. as financial adviser and would explore "a range of strategic alternatives," including a potential sale.