New York, August 01, 2014 -- Moody's says that on July 30, 2014, The E.W. Scripps Company (Ba2 stable) and Journal Communications Inc. (unrated) announced an agreement to merge their broadcast operations and spin off their newspaper businesses, creating two separately traded public companies. The merged broadcast and digital media entity will retain The E.W. Scripps Company name, existing shareholders will own 69% of the new entity, and the Scripps family shareholders will continue to have voting control. Existing shareholders of E.W. Scripps will also receive a $60 million special cash dividend prior to closing. Despite the initial increase in 2-year average debt-to-EBITDA, the merger of E.W. Scripps' broadcast operations with those of Journal Communications followed by the separation of newspaper operations is credit positive.

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