Stock in media firm now trading

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2003 | 11:16 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

MILWAUKEE -- More than 8.5 million shares of Journal Communications Inc. stock were traded Wednesday as the nation's oldest employee-owned firm started a new chapter in its history.

The company, which owns the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Las Vegas television station KTNV and other media properties, priced its initial public offering at $15 per share for 17.25 million shares of Class A common stock.

The stock, sold under the symbol "JRN," closed at $16.25 a share on the New York Stock Exchange -- up 8 percent -- in trading that ranged from $16.07 per share to $16.70 per share.

Journal Communications' gain came on a day when the Dow Jones industrials plunged 150 points, or 1.6 percent, to 9,425.51.

Employees own 90 percent of the company's shares through a trust established in 1937 by Harry J. Grant, then chairman of the firm. Grant's heirs own the balance.

Journal Communications, founded in 1882, has offered its stock only to employees and retirees for more than 60 years through the trust.

Journal Communications plans to use the net proceeds from the initial public offering to repurchase stock held by employees and retirees, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Journal Communications said the offering included 396,000 shares being sold by Grant's heirs.

The company employs more than 6,000 people at the newspaper, six television stations and 36 radio stations in 11 states and other communications operations. The Journal Sentinel was formed in 1995 by the merger of The Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel.

The Journal Sentinel is Wisconsin's largest newspaper, with a circulation of 434,000 on Sunday and 247,000 daily, according to the company.