Tribune Media Services

Tribune Media Services (TMS) was a syndication company owned by Tribune Company. The company had two divisions: News and Features, and Entertainment Products. In 2014, TMS merged with Gracenote to form one company under the Gracenote name.

TMS was headquartered in Chicago, and had offices in various American cities (Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Queensbury, New York; Arlington, Texas; Santa Monica, California), the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Hong Kong. TMS had previously been known as the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate (CTNYNS), and the Tribune Company Syndicate.

History

In 1933, the Chicago Tribune launched the Tribune-New York (Daily) News Syndicate, a precursor to TMS.^[1][2]

Upon the acquisition of Times Mirror in 2000, the Los Angeles Times Syndicate was merged into Tribune Media Services.

On June 12, 2014, Tribune Media Services merged with Gracenote to form one company under the Gracenote name.^[3]

Products and Services

TMS distributed media products, such as news, comic strips, television listings and other information services to publications across the United States, Canada, and other countries in a variety of languages, for both print and web syndication. The entertainment division of the company owned and provided content for the TV/movie, news website Zap2it.com. TMS also provided guidance information in electronic programming guides such as TiVo, and DirecTV's EPG services.

Through its subscription services, TMS offered access to the following information services: ABC News, Gannett News Services, Kiplinger's Consumer News, and the Los Angeles Times World Report.^[4]

Its content delivery site was a subscription service for newspapers and other media channels. The content provided included comics, puzzles, games, editorial cartoons, as well as feature content packages. The content delivery site also marketed content from other sources, such as U.S. News & World Report. The service had a partnership with the McClatchy Corporation providing multimedia content and info graphics worldwide.^[5]

TMS also offered products and services for niche markets via TMS Specialty Products.^[6]

MCT had, worldwide, 600-plus contributors and served more than 1,200 clients, services and resellers.^[7]

Management

• James Pinnick, GM News & Features
• Karen Eich, Director of Operations
• Joyce Winnecke, Vice President and Associate Editor
• Mary Elson, Managing Editor
• Scott Cameron, Director of Sales and Domestic Syndication
• Sarah Bright, Manager of Product Development
• Wayne Lown, Director of MCT Sales & Marketing
• Ryan Stephens, Director of International Sales
• Oliver Cahalan, Regional Executive
• Rick DeChantal, Manager, Sales
• Vince Navarro, Manager IP Relations/MCT
• Steve Tippie, Vice President of Licensing and News & Features New Market Development

Comic strips

Strips as of 2015

• 9 to 5
• Animal Crackers
• Bliss
• Bottom Liners
• Bound and Gagged
• Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!
• Broom-Hilda
• Dick Tracy
• Gasoline Alley
• Gil Thorp
• Housebroken
• Loose Parts
• Love Is...
• The Middletons
• Pluggers
• Raising Hector
• Sylvia

Discontinued strips

• Aggie Mack
• Brenda Starr, Reporter
• Compu-toon (moved to Universal Press Syndicate)
• Conrad
• The Gumps
• Harold Teen
• Heathcliff (moved to Creators Syndicate)
• Little Orphan Annie
• Moon Mullins
• Mother Goose and Grimm (moved to King Features Syndicate)
• Motley's Crew
• Shoe (moved to King Features Syndicate)
• Smitty
• Smokey Stover
• Spy vs. Spy
• Terry and the Pirates
• Winnie Winkle
• The World's Greatest Superheroes

See also

• List of newspaper comic strips

References

External links

• Official website