NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Billionaires seeking their next trophy are looking beyond sports teams to city newspapers.Supermarket magnate Ron Burkle, investor Eli Broad and former American International Group Inc. chairman Maurice R. Greenberg of New York are eyeing assets of Tribune Co., the second-largest US publisher. Tribune, owner of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, may break up its empire.

“This is the baseball team of the moment,” said John Walter, a former managing editor of the Atlanta Journal- Constitution. “These guys are thinking, `We could be civic leaders and make a lot of money.”’

The trio aren’t the only ones weighing a move into publishing; music mogul David Geffen has said he might bid on the Los Angeles Times and former General Electric Co. chief executive officer Jack Welch said he’d like to buy the Boston Globe, owned by New York Times Co.

Interest in running newspapers has increased since McClatchy Co. earlier this year agreed to sell the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News to a group led by Brian Tierney, a former Philadelphia advertising executive. Tierney sold his firm to True North Communications Inc., which in 2001 was acquired by Interpublic Group of Companies Inc.

Profits at newspapers are dropping as sales and advertising revenue shrink.

Profit margins will be about 18 percent for the industry this year, according to John Morton, president of Morton Research Inc. in Silver Spring, Maryland. Margins were 22 percent to 23 percent during the 1990s, he said.

Tribune, based in Chicago, last month said ad sales fell in the most recent quarter. Tribune chief executive officer Dennis FitzSimons has solicited offers amid pressure from his largest shareholder, the Chandler family, to boost the stock.

Shares of Tribune rose 43 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $32.46 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has gained 7.3 percent this year.

While some industry executives and analysts blame lower profits on competition with Internet advertising, others say newspapers have lost touch with their audiences.

“There’s a feeling that distant corporate ownership is only interested in the bottom line,” said Stephen Burgard, an associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University in Boston. “People think if we can only get a local individual owner, we can fix this problem.”

At least six parties are interested in all or part of Tribune, people familiar with the plans said yesterday. Burkle, managing partner of Yucaipa Cos., a buyout firm based in Los Angeles, and Broad, a Los Angeles philanthropist and former chairman of AIG SunAmerica Inc., are bidding together.

McLean, Virginia-based Gannett Co., the biggest US newspaper publisher, put in a preliminary offer for Tribune, according to the Chicago Tribune, the company’s flagship newspaper.

The dire financial outlook for newspapers has led Broad to consider his potential investment in non-financial terms.

“The newspaper business is not a good business from all I’ve seen,” he said in a September 21 interview. “My investment would be a civic investment rather than one where we expect dramatic growth.”

Burkle didn’t return a phone call seeking comment and Geffen declined to comment. Welch wasn’t available to comment, according to his assistant, Rosanne Badowski. Greenberg spokesman Mark Corallo declined to comment on his plans.

Running a newspaper might not be fun for the executives. In Philadelphia, Tierney on November 8 said he would replace editor Amanda Bennett, a day after asking top editors at the paper to consider eliminating as many as 150 jobs.

Weekday circulation at the Inquirer dropped 7.6 percent during the six months ended September 30, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

While growth is slow now, buyers may sense an opportunity to make money as newspapers determine how to profit from providing more news and advertising in digital formats.

“The technology changes have been so rapid that it’s forcing all industries, including newspapers, to take a different view,” said John Kimball, chief marketing officer of the Newspaper Association of America in Vienna, Virginia. “It’s a business in transition and a clean look is always worthwhile.”

Owning a newspaper may carry the same cachet once associated with buying sports teams. Michael Ilitch, founder of pizza chain Little Caesar Enterprises Inc., bought the Detroit Tigers baseball team in 1992, a decade after buying the Detroit Red Wings, the town’s National Hockey League team.

Home Depot Inc. founder Arthur Blank bought the Atlanta Falcons football team for $545 million in 2002. Blank applied customer-service lessons learned at Home Depot, the world’s largest home-improvement retailer, to football players and fans.

The Falcons offered lower-priced season tickets and carved out an area for tailgating near the Falcons’ downtown stadium in response to surveys about how to improve the atmosphere.

New newspaper owners might also apply skills honed in other industries, Walter said.

“Newspapers haven’t paid attention to reader needs,” he said. “Are private entrepreneurs who made their money in another world able to translate that success? I’d say the odds are about even. It’s not going to be an easy road.”

Buyers also may want to become publishers to use local papers as a soapbox or for access to politicians, Northeastern’s Burgard said. Some may soon become frustrated by their inability to increase profits beyond cutting staffs and budgets.

“You’re never really sure what you’re going to get with wealthy local owners, and the real question is whether they just want a hobby or a toy, like a hot-air balloon,” he said.

“And unless people figure out how to make new money, this will not take hold.”