Capital Stock Dividends Declared (Details) - USD ($) $ / shares in Units, $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2016	Jun. 30, 2016	Mar. 31, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015	Jun. 30, 2015	Mar. 29, 2015	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015
Class of Stock [Line Items]
Total Amount	$ 22,510	$ 22,959	$ 23,215	$ 23,620	$ 24,100	$ 0	$ 68,684	$ 47,720
Regular Cash Dividend
Class of Stock [Line Items]
Dividends declared per common share (usd per share)	$ 0.25	$ 0.25	$ 0.25	$ 0.25	$ 0.25	$ 0.00	$ 0.75	$ 0.50

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_ClassOfStockLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Aggregate dividends declared during the period for each share of common stock outstanding.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 505
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.3-04)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=27012166&loc=d3e187085-122770

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_CommonStockDividendsPerShareDeclared
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	num:perShareItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Amount of paid and unpaid common stock dividends declared with the form of settlement in cash.

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DividendsCommonStockCash
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DividendsAxis=trco_RegularCashDividendMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: