Discontinued Operations

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Discontinued Operations [Abstract]

Discontinued Operations

4. Discontinued Operations

Sale of Licensing

On June 3, 2010, the Company and its wholly owned subsidiary, United Feature Syndicate, Inc. (“UFS”) completed the sale of its character licensing business (“UML”) to Iconix Brand Group. The sale also included certain intellectual property including the rights to syndicate the Peanuts and Dilbert comic strips. The aggregate cash sale price was $175 million resulting in a pre-tax gain of $162 million. The results of operations of UML and the gain on sale are presented as discontinued operations in our financial statements for all periods.

Closure of Rocky Mountain News

After an unsuccessful search for a buyer, we closed the Rocky Mountain News after it published its final edition on February 27, 2009.

Our Rocky Mountain News and Media News Group, Inc.’s (MNG) Denver Post were partners in The Denver Newspaper Agency (the “Denver JOA”), a limited liability partnership, which operated the sales, production and business operations of the Rocky Mountain News prior to its closure. Each newspaper owned 50% of the Denver JOA and received a 50% share of the profits. Each newspaper provided the Denver JOA with the independent editorial content published in its newspaper.

Under the terms of an agreement with MNG, we transferred our interests in the Denver JOA to MNG in the third quarter of 2009. We recorded no gain or loss on the transfer of our interest in the Denver JOA to MNG.

The results of the operations of the Rocky Mountain News and the earnings from our interest in the Denver JOA are presented as discontinued operations in our financial statements for all periods.

The results of businesses held for sale or that have ceased operations are presented as discontinued operations within our results of operations. The results of operations of these businesses are excluded from segment results for all periods presented.

Operating results of our discontinued operations were as follows:

	For the years ended December 31,
(in thousands)	2011		2010			2009
Operating revenues:
United Media Licensing	$	—	$	27,979		$	69,962
Rocky Mountain News		—		—			50
Total operating revenues	$	—	$	27,979		$	70,012
Income (loss) from discontinued operations:
Gain on sale of United Media Licensing, before tax	$	—	$	161,910		$	—
Income (loss) from discontinued operations, before tax:
United Media Licensing		—		3,694			12,088
Rocky Mountain News		—		2,719			(23,372	)
Income tax (expense) benefit		—		(66,787	)		589
Income (loss) from discontinued operations	$	—	$	101,536		$	(10,695	)