• February 2, 2004

Gannett Co. took a wait-and-see attitude to whether it would try to snatch up any portions of the Hollinger newspaper empire, which has been involved in a soap opera following allegations about its former owner, Conrad Black. "We haven't seen the package on Hollinger, so I don't know whether we'd be interested in that," Gannett Chairman/Chief Executive Officer Douglas C. McCorkindale said Monday morning. Hollinger International Inc. owns a number of big newspapers in the United States and abroad, including the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post and The Daily Telegraph in the United Kingdom. Tribune Co., which owns the rival Chicago Tribune, said last week that it wanted to wait for some of the smoke to clear before deciding on a bid for all or part of its assets. For Gannett's part, McCorkindale said he was aware of Hollinger's properties but would want to make sure that it fit with the company's acquisition strategy and not just "add an extra page to the annual report."