KITV owner
buys 14 radio,
TV stations

Hearst-Argyle
acquires the assets from
Pulitzer Publishing Co.

From staff and wire reports

Pulitzer Publishing Co. is selling its nine television and five radio stations to Hearst-Argyle Television Inc. for $1.15 billion in stock.

The sale, announced last night, will create a group of 24 television stations and seven radio stations, expanding Hearst-Argyle's coverage to about 16.5 percent of U.S. television households.

Included in that mix is KITV-4 in Honolulu, which has been Hawaii's ABC affiliate since 1985. Argyle Television Inc. bought the station from Tak Communications Inc. in early 1995 for $51 million.

Last year, KITV-4 became part of Hearst-Argyle when it was created by the combination of Hearst's and Argyle Television Inc.'s television stations. Hearst Corp. is majority owner of the publicly traded Hearst-Argyle.

St. Louis-based Pulitzer said it will spin off its newspaper and new media business to its shareholders into a new company called Pulitzer Inc. New York-based Hearst-Argyle said the deal with Pulitzer gives it more diversity among U.S. networks with 11 ABC, 9 NBC and 2 CBS stations and strengthens its presence in the Southeast.