The Edward W. Scripps Trust, which is the controlling shareholder of both the E.W. Scripps Company and Scripps Networks Interactive, is due to terminate when the last grandchild of the company’s founder dies. That individual is now 93, so the Trust is getting its ducks in a row.
Both public companies reported to the SEC that the Trust has filed a petition in a Butler County, Ohio, probate court that seeks to, among other things, identify all of the named beneficiaries and others who may be entitled to a distribution when the Trust terminates and prepare for the wind-up – including court authorization for the Trustees to continue to manage the Trusts investments and assets during the period from the time that the last grandchild dies and the actual distribution to the heirs.
The petition was filed under seal, so the Trustees don’t plan to report anything about the proceedings to the public companies unless there is a determination relevant to them – presumably something which would require another SEC filing.
Edward Willis Scripps (pictured) died in 1926 at age 71.
