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One of the world's most storied media companies has gloriously rebranded itself as Tronc

One of the world's most storied media companies has gloriously rebranded itself as Tronc

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Tronc in love

By Casey Newton, a contributing editor who has been writing about tech for over 10 years. He founded Platformer, a newsletter about Big Tech and democracy.

Source BusinessWire

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After 168 years in publishing, the storied media operation once known as Tribune Publishing will now be known as Tronc. Having recently fended off a hostile takeover from Gannett, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times today united under a proud new banner — one that looks similar to, but is legally distinct from, the popular film Tron. What is a Tronc? Why, it's "a content curation and monetization engine," according to the press release. Sure! It is definitely a real organization and not something that is going to sell to an Asian telecom company for $100 in the spring of 2018.

Tronc is also a very funny word and let's talk about that for a minute!

Tribune's name derived from the Roman officials whose job it was to protect average citizens from the unfair actions of patrician magistrates. Tronc, on the other hand, is the sound of a millennial falling down the stairs. (It is apparently a portmanteau of Tribune Online Content. The company styles it lowercase, because that's the way that teens are talking on Slack these days, but we are not about to be led down that path today!)

Anyway just listen to what people are saying about Tronc!

The age of Tronc is upon us. Tronc you for reading.

Correction, June 3rd: This article has been updated to reflect the fact that Tronc was most recently known as Tribune Publishing, not Tribune Media Company. Tribune Media Company spun off its publishing unit in 2014.

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