Keith J. Kelly

Keith J. Kelly

Media

Timberwolves owner scores Star Tribune buy

Glen Taylor, the billionaire owner of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, is buying his hometown paper, Minneapolis’ Star Tribune, from its investment bank owners.

Taylor becomes at least the third major sports owner to buy the local daily paper.

John Henry, who owns the Boston Red Sox, purchased the Boston Globe last October for $70 million. The Chuck Dolan family, which controls the company that owns the New York Knicks, purchased Newsday through their Cablevision platform for $650 million in 2008.

Terms of Taylor’s Star Tribune purchase were not disclosed — but the price tag is believed to be more than Henry paid for the Globe.

Ken Doctor, an analyst who runs the Newsonomics blog, said “the Star Tribune most likely got a premium price based on it being an above-average performer among regional dailies. I’d estimate $100 million.”

The Star Tribune is estimated to have had 2013 revenues of about $175 million and a profit of about $30 million.

The Globe is believed to be profitable to the tune of $10 million a year. Newsday last year lost $15.4 million on revenue of $266 million.

Taylor told Media Ink that the paper’s parent, Star Tribune Media, “is profitable, and we expect it to remain so.”

Taylor is a home-grown success story, with an estimated net worth, according to Forbes, of $1.8 billion.

He said he has no ambition to add other media holdings but has ideas to help the company “better serve its customers.

“The current management team is staying place,” he said.

Taylor is buying the paper from majority shareholder Wayzata Investment Partners, who bought up control after the paper emerged from bankruptcy in 2009.

The top management includes CEO Michael Klingensmith, a one-time top executive at Time Inc., who has been in the top job at his hometown paper since January 2010.

“I am going to stay,” he said.