Scripps Splits Cable, Web From Newspapers

E.W. Scripps Co. Tuesday said it would split into two parts, separating fast-growing cable and Web brands from local U.S. newspapers and television stations.

The new Scripps Networks Interactive will include cable TV’s Food Network and Home & Garden Television and comparison shopping Web sites Shopzilla and uSwitch, among other properties.

The new E.W. Scripps’ properties will include Denver’s Rocky Mountain News and Memphis, Tenn.’s Commercial Appeal, 10 local TV stations and Washington’s Scripps Media Center, which includes the Scripps Howard News Service and United Media syndicate.

The Scripps Networks Interactive businesses generate about $1.4 billion a year and the rest of the Scripps businesses generate about $1.1 billion, Scripps said.

The two publicly traded companies will each have a sharpened strategic focus, Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lowe said.

A tax-free dividend of stock in Scripps Networks Interactive will be distributed to all Scripps shareholders on a pro-rata basis when the separation is completed in 2008′s second quarter, Scripps said.

The Edward W. Scripps Trust will maintain control of both companies by electing a majority of board members for each.

Lowe will become Scripps Networks Interactive’s president and chief executive officer. Current Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Richard Boehne will become the new Scripps president and chief executive officer.