Gerry Spector, chief operating officer of the bankrupt Tribune Company, will step down at the end of the year, reports Tower Ticker.
His departure closely follows chief executive Randy Michaels's resignation. Michaels has been criticized for fostering a frat-house corporate culture.
Spector, 63, was one of Zell's first hires after he took over the Company in 2007. Spector first worked for Read More
This morning at the New York Public Library during the Bloomberg Real Estate Briefing, Sam Zell sat for an interview with Bloomberg Television's Betty Liu. While the Local 46 Union protested Mr. Zell's use of non-union labor to finish an apartment building on West 23rd Street outside, Ms. Liu asked Mr. Zell about the Read More
In the second high-level ousting of a Tribune Co. executive in a matter of days, CEO Randy Michaels will be advised by the board of directors of the company to issue his resignation, the New York Times reports.
The news comes soon after chief innovation officer Lee Abrams stepped down from his position amid Read More
Tribune Co. CEO Randy Michaels sent a memo to staffers announcing the suspension of chief innovation officer Lee Abrams, who brought the company some unwanted publicity this week after an email with a link to an Onion video with racy content was leaked. Jeff Bercovici has the memo.
Lee recognizes that the video was in extremely Read More
This morning David Carr takes a deep look at what has been happening inside the Tribune Company since Sam Zell took over at the end of 2007.
There has not only been cost-cutting and declining quality at the company's newspapers (at The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times' circulation is down in 9.8 and Read More
In a 600-page report filed Monday, bankruptcy investigator Kenneth Klee expressed concerns about the late stages of the Tribune Company's 2007 sale to Sam Zell. The $8.2 billion deal may have left the company too shaky to survive, Mr. Klee found. Mr. Klee's findings could hamper the company's attempt to get out of bankruptcy protection, Read More
More bad news from the West Coast this morning comes from LA Observed's Kevin Roderick: payments to Los Angeles Times freelancers has been stopped.
Mr. Roderick writes:
If the Los Angeles Times owes you money, you might have to wait a long time. Publisher Eddy Hartenstein told the staff yesterday that the Chapter 11 Read More
Who needs fancy Chief Innovation Officers (or their imaginary sons)? Wired's Clive Thompson just might've come up with the solution to all of the big media companies' problems. As Mr. McGuire counseled young Benjamin Bradock in The Graduate, we have just one word—are you listening—for the Tribune Company, The New York Times Company, Read More
The New York Observer's Man in Beijing, Tom Scocca, has a few thoughts on yesterday's announcement that Sam Zell's Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy protection.
Here he is, channeling the Tribune Company's Chief Innovation Officer, Lee Abrams:
CRUSHING POVERTY is not only a GREAT MOTIVATOR, but it is also the FASTEST- GROWING DEMOGRAPHIC Read More
Sam Zell's Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy today in a Delaware court.
Sam Zell said in a memo to Tribune employees that "factors beyond our control have created a perfect storm—a precipitous decline in revenue and a tough economy coupled with a credit crisis that makes it extremely difficult to support our debt."
It's an incredible thing: Hit the submit button, and after several hours of elaborate and costly printing and distribution, your content is before the reader! At about 4:30 yesterday afternoon, if you wanted a copy of the morning papers in the Tribune section of Media Pavilion 2 there were still plenty of choices. The reporters Read More
Jim Romenesko has posted a press release from the Chicago Tribune announcing the promotion of Jane Hirt to managing editor. Ms. Hirt had been the editor of RedEye, the Tribune's young, hip [sic] paper, not to be mistaken with Fox News' young, hip [sic] late night show where bloggers are stars. (In Read More
Jim Romenesko posted the above photograph of a Sam Zell-themed cake served up by employees at the Tribune Company's Hartford Courant. As Mr. Romenesko wrote, "A Courant staffer couldn't resist poking Zell's eyes out—on the cake, of course."
Mmmm. Revenge has never tasted so ... bitter.
On Wednesday morning at 11 a.m., Arthur Sulzberger and Janet Robinson will be managing a conference call that, from the looks of it, won't be much fun. They'll be reporting The New York Times Company's second-quarter earnings. Last time they did one of quarterly earnings calls, The Times reported big losses; there was a plan Read More
150 reporters, editors and designers at The Los Angeles Times are packing their boxes and heading home for good this week, but out of the paper's press department that's not the big news at all!
Last night, John Conroy, one of their spokesmen, sent reporters an email about a new blog the newspaper's Web site, latimes.com, Read More
