Media General will work with Harbinger directors

Newspaper and television company Media General Inc (MEG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it will work with three directors proposed by dissident shareholder Harbinger Capital Partners if they are elected to the board.

Media General shares rose as much as 6 percent after Chief Executive Marshall Morton made the comments, although the company stood by its recommendation that shareholders vote only for its own nominees at an April 24 meeting.

"If they're elected directors, we'll work with them," he said of Harbinger's nominees. "We're civil people by nature."

Morton spoke during a conference call to discuss Media General's financial performance. The company posted a wider quarterly loss as a nationwide housing crisis eroded advertising in Florida, where it publishes the Tampa Tribune.

The results were also hurt by a loss from discontinued operations -- the planned sale of five television stations.

Harbinger owns 18.2 percent of Media General's publicly traded shares and has argued the company should cut publishing costs more aggressively and consider lowering its divided to pay down more debt. It has won some support from two proxy advisory firms and Media General investor Mario Gabelli.

Morton has described Harbinger's ideas for ushering the company through tough economic times as "not workable or usable." On Thursday, he said he was still not convinced by their strategy.

"We don't agree with the approaches that they have taken and we've said that and Harbinger understands that," he added. "But that doesn't mean they won't have ... their opportunity to say what was on their mind at meetings. Of course we would listen."

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN1733381520080417

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Media General will work with Harbinger directors