PW: Tribune Makes Two Purchases

Tribune Education has reached an agreement to acquire the high school academic product lines of South-Western Educational Publishing, a division of Thomson Learning. The acquisition includes South-Western's social studies list -- a new area for Tribune -- plus South-Western's math and science lines. Terms were not disclosed.

The social studies lines, which include texts in such areas as world history, economics, psychology and law, will be incorporated into Tribune's NTC/Contemporary educational division, as will the math lines. The science list will become part of Tribune's Everyday Learning Corp.

Under the agreement, Thomson Learning will retain all rights to the South-Western brand name and will continue to publish business/office technology and computer education products and services under that imprint. Thomson will also continue to publish South-Western College Publishing brands.

The South-Western purchase was the second deal done by Tribune at the end of 1999. Earlier, the company agreed to acquire Meeks Heit Publishing Co. Founded in 1991, Meeks Heit produces health education materials and teacher supplements for the k-12 market. The Meeks Heit titles will become part of Everyday Learning.