Tribune Co.'s $650 million sale of Newsday, announced Monday, is an important step toward alleviating its debt burden — for this year.

Now, the Chicago company needs to move on its next big asset sales, including the Chicago Cubs baseball team and Wrigley Field, to meet its obligations to creditors looming in 2009.

The deal puts one of Tribune's largest newspapers in the hands of cable operator Cablevision Systems, which like Newsday is based on New York's Long Island.

Wall Street has been skeptical about the benefits to Cablevision from the deal, given that it hasn't operated a newspaper before, and the newspaper industry is struggling as readers and advertisers move to the Internet.

"It's incredibly hard to fathom why they want to expand into the newspaper business," says Richard Greenfield, analyst at Pali Capital. "Why are they putting dollars toward newspapers rather than buying their own stock?"

In Tribune's case, it needs the cash it will raise in the sale. Last December, it bought out its public shareholders in an $8.2 billion deal orchestrated by real estate mogul Sam Zell, and now it's struggling to service that debt.

Zell had originally hoped to keep Tribune's newspaper and broadcasting businesses intact, but had to consider options for Newsday, following a rapid drop in the newspaper business this year.

Tribune now seems to be covered on a $650 million lump-sum debt payment coming due in December as well as other near-term obligations, but analysts say it needs to get moving on other asset sales to be in shape to deliver on a $750 million debt payment due in June 2009.

"This is certainly the first step in alleviating near-term liquidity concerns," says Mike Simonton of Fitch Ratings, a bond ratings agency, but adds it "does not get them out of the woods necessarily."

The next step for Tribune is selling the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field, which together could fetch up to $1 billion, which would get the company past the 2009 payment. Once those sales are done, Simonton says, there should be a better indication of whether Tribune faces pressure to sell more.

Much would depend on whether the company's new management can stabilize Tribune's newspapers. "A year and a half from now, it will be more clear if further asset sales are necessary," Simonton says.

Tribune is still marketing the Cubs, while it's in talks with an Illinois state agency about Wrigley Field. Those talks are complicated by the fact that the agency, which also owns U.S. Cellular Field, where the Chicago White Sox play, wants laws that restrict changes to Wrigley Field loosened.

Another option for Tribune would be selling its roughly 30% stake in Food Network back to E.W. Scripps, which owns the rest of the rapidly growing cable TV channel. Analysts estimate that stake could be worth well above $500 million.

Scripps, however, is going through changes of its own as it splits into two companies, one with the cable networks and another with a group of newspaper and TV stations. That split is expected to be complete by the end of the second quarter.

To get favorable tax treatment, Tribune will retain a 3% stake in a joint venture to be formed containing Newsday, as well as several related assets, including Newsday.com, some regional magazines and the free New York City daily newspaper amNewYork. Cablevision will hold the other 97%.

Cablevision, which is controlled by the Dolan family, has about 3.1 million subscribers in the New York metro area and owns Madison Square Garden, the NBA's New York Knicks and the NHL's New York Rangers. Its shares fell 45 cents to $24.52 Monday.

Newsday is the 11th-largest newspaper in the USA according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, with 379,613 average paid weekday copies in the six-month period that ended in March.