The Tribune Company said privately yesterday that it would open its auction to bids for its individual assets, not just for the company as a whole, according to people involved in the auction, the New York Times reports.

The shift in strategy makes local ownership of papers like The Los Angeles Times, Newsday and The Hartford Courant, among other properties, more of a possibility than it had initially been.

The company first offered itself for sale as a whole, and received preliminary offers last week from four private equity firms, those involved in the auction said. But in a series of phone calls yesterday, they added, company representatives said the offers were disappointingly low.

They said the company indicated that it would still consider selling itself as a whole but wanted to reach out to other potential buyers for a “market check” of the value of certain assets, which it did not specify.

Tribune, which is based in Chicago and has a market value of $8.2 billion, also owns The Sun in Baltimore, The Chicago Tribune, two dozen television stations and the Chicago Cubs.

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