NEW YORK (Reuters) - Publisher and broadcaster Tribune Co has hired investment bank Lazard to look at a possible bankruptcy filing even as it continues talks with lenders to renegotiate its debt, a source briefed on the matter said on Monday.
The privately held publisher of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, which took on about $13 billion of debt when it went private last year under a deal led by real estate mogul Sam Zell, has also hired a legal counsel for a possible trip through bankruptcy court, newspapers reported late on Sunday.
A restructuring outside of bankruptcy court remains an option for Tribune as talks with creditors continue, the source told Reuters, asking not to be named because of the confidential nature of the talks.
Lazard declined comment while Tribune was not immediately reachable.
Tribune is trying to sell off properties such as the Chicago Cubs baseball team to pay off its debt. It already sold the Newsday newspaper on Long Island, New York, to Cablevision Systems Corp.
Analysts have said Tribune's biggest challenge is to avoid violating the lending terms, or "covenants," on what they estimate to be about $10 billion of guaranteed debt.
(Reporting by Jui Chakravorty Das, editing by Matthew Lewis)
