• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, January 8, 2007

Private-equity firms are quietly becoming the new media players. Oak Hill Capital Partners is the latest--buying nine local TV stations from the New York Times Co. for $575 million, four months after they were placed on the block. The Times will focus on its print businesses and their incarnations in the digital sphere, but the move is a reminder that even struggling old-line businesses, such as local TV stations, are fair game for private firms.

The Times' nine stations include three in the bottom part of the top-50 markets, in Norfolk, Va., Memphis and Oklahoma City, where it has a duopoly with the NBC and MyNetworkTV stations.

The media company said it wished to exit the station business in order to focus on its newspaper and "rapidly growing digital businesses," which include About.com and sites linked to its New York Times and Boston Globe newspapers.

Some industry observers have predicted that the TV station business has a shaky future as viewers increasingly turn to the Web for video consumption--and more importantly, news. Stations derive a major portion of their revenues from late local newscasts.

In fact, local stations have been trying to diversify their revenue streams by bolstering their own Web sites, but newspapers in their markets may already have established an unimpeachable beachhead. Still, TV stations do have a wealth of video content that many newspapers do not, which appeals to a growing number of consumers with broadband access.

Despite any lackluster future forecasts, private-equity firms have been eager to purchase "traditional" media properties over the last year--perhaps content to benefit from the still-profitable businesses that public companies, such as the Times, may view as an earnings lag.

The Times station group includes four CBS affiliates, two NBC, two ABC and the MNTV stations.