Due to a drop in ad sales, the Tribune Company has announced its second-quarter profit fell 59 percent.

The company's net income dropped to $36.3 million from $87.8 million. That's a 10 cent drop per share, from 28 cents to 18 cents, Tribune said today in a statement. In the period that ended July 1, sales fell 6.8 percent to $1.31 billion.

Despite the media giant's profit woes, Tribune is on track with its plan to go private in a deal with billionaire Sam Zell in the fourth quarter this year, said Dennis FitzSimons, Tribune's chief executive officer.

“Our going-private transaction is on track and the financing for it is fully committed,” FitzSimons said.

Edward Atorino, an analyst at Benchmark Co. in New York, told Bloomberg he rates Tribune's shares “hold,” and said although the company's revenue was “pretty bad,” it wasn't worse than he had expected.

“They said they're going to try to get (the deal with Zell) done, which is all that really counts,” Atorino is quoted by Bloomberg as saying.