Tribune Company

Rupert Murdoch was standing in a deep corner of the Rose Hall at about 7:30 p.m. last night to toast his fellow influencers: It was the Time 100 celebration, an event that drums up publicity for the magazine's decreasingly influential list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

The day before, Mr. Murdoch had promised investors and reporters listening in on a News Corp. investors' call that he'd prevail in his purchase of Newsday over rival bidders Mort Zuckerman and the Dolans.  read more »

Sam Zell sent out a company-wide email last night, and reemphasized, in slightly different words, that there are people interested in Newsday. While speaking about the "disposition front," he says there have been "specific inquiries" about Newsday. Here's the entire memo:

Lender Call Recap  read more »

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The Tribune Company conference call is still going on. In introductory remarks, Sam Zell told investors that when he bought Tribune there was originally a “goal to preserve everything together.” Presumably he means all the newspapers, Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs, and the broadcasting properties. But the “significant erosion” of advertising money and revenue drops in the newspaper industry, he said, has “certainly put that plan into some question. And we’re forced to consider the divestiture of some of our assets.”

Ante up!

Now suddenly everyone is interested in Newsday. The New York Times is reporting that a Manhattan media blockbuster trio is "in discussions" to buy the Melville-based newspaper: Rupert Murdoch, James Dolan and Mort Zuckerman. Sam Zell decides who's the winner.

It sets up a satisfying auction between Mr. Murdoch (Post-owner) and Mr. Zuckerman (Daily News-owner) and Mr. Dolan, who owns MSG, the Knicks, Rangers and Cablevision.  read more »

It’s been a jittery two weeks in Melville.

Over the next week, Newsday reporters and editors are expecting an announcement about job cuts. Even veterans of the Vlad the Impaler year of 1995, in which Times Mirror ordered the elimination of 800 jobs from a payroll of 3,200, contemplate the coming week with dread.

“To be honest with you, it’s really grim here,” said James Bernstein, a business reporter and 30-year-veteran.  read more »

On Friday afternoon, in one of Russ Stanton's first acts as executive editor of The Los Angeles Times, he walked into the office of one of the paper's managing editors and fired him.

"I was shocked," said the editor, John Montorio, in an interview with The Observer. "It was really quite brief and to the point. There was no emotionalism, no hostility and bitterness. It was seriously better than that—no yelling, screaming, crying."

Mr. Montorio, managing editor for features, who heads up the Sunday Calendar, Daily Calendar, Weekend Calendar, Book Review, Home, Food, Travel, Real Estate, Health and "Highway 1" sections as well as the Sunday magazine, announced the news to the paper in a memo yesterday, saying he would be gone at the end of the month.  read more »

The Los Angeles Times has a new editor, according to a press release that just went out.

"The Los Angeles Times Media Group (LATMG) today unveiled significant changes to its organization and leadership team, including the announcement that Russ Stanton has been named Los Angeles Times Editor," the release reads in part. And this from publisher David Hiller: “Russ Stanton combines great personal leadership, communication skills, the highest journalistic standards and a commitment to excellence, and has been championing much of our work to become a truly multimedia news organization that’s a relevant and engaging part of the 24-hour-a-day world of news and information.”

As we reported yesterday, the choice of an editor to replace Jim O'Shea has divided the newsroom.  read more »

Tribune chief Sam Zell had a meeting with the staff of The Los Angeles Times today that was so wildly entertaining it puts to shame the one he held at Newsday two weeks ago. Among other things discussed— his willingness to take a 50-cent salary!—he blasted outgoing editor Jim O'Shea, according to a newsroom source present.  read more »

If David Simon is Captain Ahab, then call me Ishmael. Mr. Simon, the newspaper-reporter-turned-television-producer, stands accused of unhealthy obsession because he is using the current season of The Wire to revisit his old workplace, The Baltimore Sun.  read more »

Tomorrow shareholders in the Tribune Company meet to approve an $8.2 billion deal to sell the company--publishers of The Los Angeles Times, Newsday and The Chicago Tribune--to billionaire real-estate developer Sam Zell.

Or do they? The New York Times this morning examines whether the precipitous slump in the newspaper industry (even since the Zell deal was announced in April) might be enough to kill the deal.  read more »

Billionaire real estate mogul Sam Zell swooped late into the bidding for Tribune Co., and has now beat out the unlikely pairing of Ron Burkle and Eli Broad, according to today's press release.

It looks like the Wall Street Journal got the story first, breaking it online, with the Tribune itself, and others close behind.

And since it broke before 6 a.m. on the west coast, we'll let's the Los Angeles Times James Rainey off the hook. Sure he'll have something soon, though.

The New Yorker's Ken Auletta began this morning's all-star media panel, held at the W Hotel in midtown, with a question for McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt.

Would he have fired Dean Baquet from the Los Angeles Times?

"I doubt it," he responded, "but I have no idea."

Laughter ensued, not simply because of the query, legitimate in light of Baquet's fallout with L.A. Times parent, the Tribune Company. It had more to do with Mr. Baquet, now New York Times D.C. bureau chief, being flanked by the two men.

All three were on stage, for roughly 90 minutes, to discuss the fate of the newspaper industry, the latest gathering of Syracuse University's Newhouse School in New York.

Unsurprisingly, Si was sitting right up front.  read more »

Media machers filled the ballroom for the 8 a.m. breakfast, including the New Yorker's David Remnick, Time Warner chief Dick Parksons, and the Ingrassia brothers, Larry and Paul, representing the N.Y. Times and Wall Street Journal, respectively. There was a gaggle of media reporters, as well as other notables like former New York Mayor (and New York Press columnist!) Ed Koch.

The slowing housing market nationwide (not necessarily in New York City) has been blamed for a lot of things; now, add this one to the list, according to Advertising Age:

The newspaper industry's housing bubble is about to burst.

For all publishers' myriad problems, real-estate advertising has been a source of uninterrupted growth since the mid-1990s, as a combination of low interest rates and baby-boomer disposable income led to an unprecedented housing boom...

But the end was in sight in January, when major publishers including Tribune Co., McClatchy Co. and Lee Enterprises posted real-estate-ad declines in the high single digits. Economic reports projecting steep falloff in new housing sales and starts make further ad declines all but inevitable.

There's also Craigslist--that can't be helping.

- Tom Acitelli

Oh, what a year for newspapers! They’re dying! They’re keeling. They’re ghosts!  read more »

Oh, what a year for newspapers! They’re dying! They’re keeling. They’re ghosts!  read more »

Ben introduces us to Joe Bruno's nemesis.

Bruno owes these unions some Christmas cards.

Michael Barone says it's time to start calling Rudy a "frontrunner." (Via Andrew Sullivan.)

The Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats have been giving some money away. Hey, 'tis the season!

Gawker hit the New York Press Club's holiday party.

Bob Gates: low-talker.

Mike Tomasky takes Jim Baker down a peg. (Caution: long.)

Durham DA drops rape charges against Duke lax players on the Friday afternoon before Christmas, when no one will notice. Classy move, Nifong!

You might want to cancel that trip to London.

Chicago Tribune columnist viciously attacks Barack Obama: "He's a decent fellow and I like him. He might make a fine liberal president someday. ... What's irritating is the relentless media fawning and hype." Don't let the righties bring you down, B.O.!

-- Andrew Rice

• Yves Saint Laurent's 75-acre estate, an 1874 doozy off the Normandy Coast, has been reduced from $25.6 million to $19.9. (Why? "It was too much.") We hope his old Fifth Avenue pad does a little bit better. (It can be fashionably yours for a mere $7.75 million.) [Forbes]
• Realtor-Mocking Blog Post of the Month: A couple of weeks ago, the Freakonomics geniuses noticed the National Association of Realtors' ego-bruised response to a poll listing realty as the single least prestigious calling. (The NAR's retort doesn't exactly add to the profession's reputation.) "It can't feel good to come in dead last in anything," Freak-man Stephen Dubner wrote, "even a public-opinion survey." [Freakonomics]
• Thankfully, the rental market is apparently cooling off after a hellish summer. Will renters have an easier time this winter? "The party might be over for the city's brokers and landlords," writes The Real Deal, "at least for now." [TRD]
• Though the "U.S. General Services Administration" doesn't sound like an exciting bunch, they've filled their "influential chief architect post" with a young modernist instead of a classicist (who had been considered a shoe-in). Viva modernity! [Chicago Tribune, via Arch News Now]
- Max Abelson  read more »
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• Icahn, Macklowe suprise SL Green with Reckson bid.
[Crain's]
• Two condo conversions, including 20 Pine, get financing.
[GlobeSt]
• Judge tosses out Craigslist discrimination suit.
[Chicago Tribune]
• Judge dismisses lawsuit against new Yankee Stadium.
[NY Times]
• Corzine: Can Jersey afford property tax cuts?
[NY Times]
• The U.S. department store makes a comeback.
[NY Times]
• Crowne Plaza Hotel in Times Square sells for $362 million.
[NY Post]
• Trump nears approval for Soho condo-hotel.
[Daily News]
• New Jamaica Bay homes going for millions.
[Daily News]
• Housing starts drop to six-year low.
[MarketWatch]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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Dean Baquet’s insurgency at the Los Angeles Times lasted less than eight weeks.  read more »

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Los Angeles Times editor Dean Baquet has been forced out by the Tribune Company. Seven minutes after the story was posted on LAObserved, Mr. Baquet sent the following email to the staff:

-----Original Message----- From: Baquet, Dean Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 1:42 PM To: yyeditall Subject:

By now you've seen the Wall Street Journal story on L.A. Observed that I'll be leaving the paper. Believe me, I didn't want it to come out this way. Give me some time, and I'll talk to the entire newsroom later this afternoon, at 3 p.m. outside my office. And do me an even bigger favor. Let's do a hell of a job on the election tonight.

Best,

Dean

On Sept. 21, Los Angeles Times editor Dean Baquet turned 50 years old.  read more »

“I think for The Sun, and for most papers our size, that the mission is to be the definitive sourc  read more »

“I think for The Sun, and for most papers our size, that the mission is to be the definitive s  read more »

Arthur Chi'en, the victim of Opie and Anthony's demonstration that they can get someone besides themselves fired, will be returning to New York television news. Two months after a follower of the shock jocks goaded Chi'en into saying "What the fuck is your problem?" while a live camera was still (whoop!) rolling--leading his weak-kneed employers at Channel 2 to ax him--Channel 11 is bringing the reporter back. The offical announcement follows:

NEW YORK, August 17, 2005 - Reporter Arthur Chi'en has joined "The WB11 News at Ten," the prime time newscast of Tribune Broadcasting's WB Television Network affiliate, WPIX Channel 11 (The WB11), it was announced today by the TV station's news director Karen Scott. Chi'en, a New York native who spent all but one year of his journalism career here, was a reporter for New York's WCBS-TV Channel 2 until May 2005. His appointment to WPIX is effective Monday, August 22.

"Arthur is a great reporter," said Scott. "I am looking forward to welcoming him to The WB11 news team."

Chi'en began his journalism career as a photographer for the Columbia Daily Spectator, the daily newspaper of Columbia University, where he graduated with honors in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. He joined NBC News in 1993 as an associate producer. There he worked on the "NBC Nightly News," "Today," and for cable news channel MSNBC. Chi'en moved in front of the camera in 1998 when he joined Time Warner's New York 1 News. As a general assignment reporter he covered the September 11 attacks, the crashes of American Air Lines flight 587, Swissair 111, and Egypt Air 990, the Amadou Diallo shooting and trial, as well as transportation and clergy sex abuse stories.  read more »

After a year at Boston's Fox TV station, WFXT, Chi'en returned to New York in December 2003 to join WCBS-TV Channel 2. There his notable reporting assignments included coverage of Hurricane Frances from Florida and the aftermath of the Tsunami that devastated Sri Lanka.

"I am very enthusiastic about joining The WB11 News," said Chi'en. "I think that they are a top notch group who are ahead of the curve on a lot of things."

In a democratic society, successful propaganda generally relies on two elements: the fabrication of  read more »

Two days after Monarchos, the horse he bred, won the Kentucky Derby with apparently marvelous ease,  read more »

The American-born painter and printmaker Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) had a career unlike that of an  read more »

Grim new evidence of the death penalty's unjust application has emerged in an exhaustively reported  read more »

Now that they are no longer working for the Times Mirror Company, some Newsday reporters are hoping  read more »