Sam Zell's Tribune Company may start distributing The Wall Street Journal in metro areas, because it's not already enough of a giant clusterfuck over in the newspaper industry now that we need Rupert Murdoch's Journal being thrown at your door by the same guys who bring you theLA Times.
And what is Zell doing taking on this deal, which is still in "trial runs" with the local teamsters running the trucks? Didn't we just hear about how the man can't even afford his own baseball team, and now he's getting into some weird MGM/Weinstein-esque arrangement with another media baron?
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Who says you can't have it all? Sam Zell, that crazy/eccentric/crazy billionaire from Chicago that bought up the Tribune Company, including LA Times and Chicago Tribune, also owns the Chicago Cubs. Hopefully he treats his staff at the baseball field a little bit better than his employees at the paper, who were all trying to sue him before the industry went to shit.
But Zellmania is not catching, apparently, and when the hobbitish Illinoisan tried to cash in on some of the Barack fever by finding a buyer for 95% of the Cubs (everyone except James Harden), he was met by cold feet and a lot of hedging. So now Zell is trying to backtrack and only sell 50% of the team.
Sure, whatever. Because everyone is going to want to share ownership with one of the most well-known crazies.
It's not surprising that the Washington Post is endorsing Barack Obama this election. What is surprising is the time frame they decided to do it in: only half an hour after The Chicago Tribune came out with their own endorsement for the candidate, and four hours after the Tribune's sister paper, the LA Times, came out with a similar editorial.
For both the Tribune and Times, it marked the first time the papers have supported a Democratic nominee for the White House. The WP, a little less so, they've historically gone left. But the question remains: why the domino effect of endorsements on a Friday afternoon, after the morning/week's copies have already come out?
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Sam Zell is currently in a tug-of-war with his employees over at the LA Times and Tribune. The maligned writers filed a lawsuit against Zell for scamming the company out of millions of dollars, while the gnomely huckster fired back with internal memos about partnership, while calling the lawsuits "frivolous and unnecessary." All per the norm finger-pointing that occurs when businesses fail.
But now the game's stepped up 2 the streets, with the plaintiffs making Zell out to be a monster in a letter to the press that highlights Zell's crappy music taste:
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Glenn Tilton, the CEO of United Airlines, must be pretty freakin' pissed at everybody from Bloomberg News, Google, Tribune Co.'s Florida Sun-Sentinel, and financial newsletter Income Securities Advisors, which turned a six-year-old news story about the airline's 2002 bankruptcy filing into a current, breaking alert — sending shareholders into fire sale mode and driving down the price of the stock so low and so quickly, NASDAQ froze all trading. So what retribution does United have? Well, they could sue any of those parties. Except they'd probably be laughed out of court. CONTINUED »
Yesterday we told you about how United Airlines went from a $12 stock for a $0.01 in a single morning, when a reporter from the financial newsletter Income Securities Advisors found a six-year-old story about United's former bankruptcy (it entered protection in 2002, and exited in 2006), treated it like it was breaking news, and posted the item to Bloomberg News, which got picked up by Tribune Co.'s Florida Sun-Sentinel. It turns out, Income Securities was just performing a regular Google News search when it found the item, which was posted to the Sun-Sentinel's list of most-viewed stories, but without a 2002 date. Which means Google News, supposedly powered by a complex algorithm superior to human editing, erroneously pulled the story into its newsfeed and treated it as a brand new article, leading others to believe the story was fresh. Shareholders jumped on the news, selling off United stock, and driving the shareprice down rapidly before trading was frozen. Congrats, Brin & Page.
Bloomberg News does it again: 'Shares of United Airlines lost nearly all their value Monday morning when a false rumor swept financial markets that the struggling carrier had filed for bankruptcy protection. United shares traded at one cent in late morning on the New York Stock Exchange, down 99.92 percent, or $12.29. … The circumstances surrounding the rumor were still being sorted out Monday afternoon. In a statement, United said the rumor occurred when the Web site of The Sun-Sentinel, a Florida newspaper, posted a six-year-old story from The Chicago Tribune archives about United's previous bankruptcy filing. The airline operated under bankruptcy protection from 2002 through 2006. "United has demanded a retraction from The Sun Sentinel and is launching an investigation," the airline said in a statement. On its Web site, however, The Chicago Tribune offered a different set of events. The Tribune said a reporter for Income Securities Advisors, an investment research firm based in Miami, found a Tribune story in the Sun-Sentinel archives during a search for information about bankruptcy situations. The reporter at Income Securities posted the story to Bloomberg News, where the rumor then spread rapidly, The Tribune said.' [NYT]
Fox News just wants to make sure you knows who loves you, baby. The network took out a page in the Chicago Tribune yesterday to print this CNN attack ad, which references the historic Gerald Ford smear campaign.
Despite this, and vocal criticism from the media that CNN's "expansion" project is just another word for cutbacks, the network is doing just fine: Its Biden-Obama announcement coverage on Saturday was 137 percent ahead of Fox in the ratings, and with 743,000 viewers in the coveted 25-54 demographic, was the highest-rated hour on cable.
A difficult feat, considering Fox won the lottery to provide all the raw footage from the DNC to the other networks. This is one of those scenarios where the numbers speak for themselves; flies, honey, vinegar, and all that.
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Scott Smith, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune, told staffers in a memo that he would step down, after 30 years with Tribune Co. Not so surprisingly, Smith alluded to differences with Tribune owner Sam Zell as the reason for his departure. Said "differences" likely include Smith's want to keep his staff intact, while Zell's plan is to "right-size" the operation. [CS-T]
It's been a full two weeks since Chicago Tribune intern Katie Hamilton won the Chicago Sun-Times "Zell No!" music video challenge — and she hasn't been paid the $1,000 prize yet. Naturally, the combative Sam Zell-owned Tribune will be watching its clock tick until the cheque arrives.
Meanwhile, raise your hand if you've ever had to wait more than 14 days to be paid for your freelance work.
When the Chicago Sun-Times challenged readers to write a song about Sam Zell's plan to re-sell naming rights to the Chicago Cubs' Wrigley Field, little did they think the winner of "Zell No: Don't Rename Wrigley Field" would be an intern at the competition.
But then they chose University of Illinois student Katie Hamilton, the free help at the Chicago Tribune, who didn't just pen the lyrics — she made a music video.
The good sports that they are, the Sun-Times has its own report about getting punk'd by Team Zell.
But as the other entries prove, it's not like they had another option. CONTINUED »
If you’re looking for news about cars driving around in a circle, don’t look to the Chicago Tribune or to the Sun-Sentinel. The papers have eliminated their NASCAR coverage in favor of local news; NASCAR beat writer Ed Hinton has left the company. In the mean time, we can’t decide which is less interesting: suburban school budgets or NASCAR. [Romenesko]
A "Get Fuzzy" comic scheduled to run Sept. 14 in the Chicago Tribune was replaced with a note that advised that the comic "did not meet the Tribune's standards for taste," reportedly because the strip had the audacity to refer to mobsters as "goons."
And while many readers are protesting the Trib's seemingly arbitrary application of censorship, we're predicting this trend of preemptive self-editing will actually catch on big-time.
In which case it won't be long before Garfield's pulled on the basis that it promotes childhood obesity, Dilbert is yanked for characterizing corporate execs as boring people who have no soul, Cathy is scratched after offending the delicate sensibilities of overweight chronically single women and The New Yorker is required to start publishing explanations to make each cartoon more "accessible."
• After more than one false alarm, the words "Murdoch and Dow Jones reach agreement in principle" have us shouting from the rooftops, and singing a song we made up ourselves entitled, "It's About Fucking Time."
• Which means Christopher Bancroft has failed in his last-ditch, longshot crusade to thwart Rupert Murdoch's plans for total world domination.
• At long last, HuffPo tackles that hard-hitting issue of "Why Canadians care about the Black verdict and Americans don't."
• Harper's Bazaar EIC Glenda Bailey becomes the latest victim of the new jaundiced fashionista trend.
• William Shatner to interview celebs on boring, new Biography-channel version of Chelsea Lately.
• In desperate post-Sopranos haze, HBO greenlights new episodes of Unsolved Mysteries.
• Is YouTube destined to become the new Friendster and fade into "I Love The 00's" obscurity?
• Advertisers already starting to back away from Portfolio on the basis that it's boring and reads like "Business for Dummies."
• Joe Scarborough and his cronies "jokingly" ripped the producers' Paris Hilton script into pieces, pretended to light it on fire, then stuck it in the paper shredder. It's called journalism, people.
• After seven years on Court TV, Catherine Crier Live is no longer. Must be something to do with those action-packed reality shows they're going after.
• Tom Ford gives private tour of new store to fashion editors, where even Cathy Horyn was welcome.
• More about FNC's Red Eye than you probably care to know.
• Time Out New York's Eat Out Awards honor the restaurants you've learned to avoid.
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• Vanity Fair: Bringing computer nerds and high fashion together for the first time since Bill Gates banged a supermodel back in 1991.
• Does major media have a conservative bias? "Poppycock!" declares FNC chairman Roger Ailes.
• Wow, some Montreal based publishing company we've never even heard of is willing to buy the O.J. book say they'll buy the O.J. book for the free publicity!
• "Did WaPo break the Walter Reed Story?" wonders the Boston Phoenix. "Who in the hell is Walter Reed?" snaps diabetes frontman Wilford Brimley.
• Conrad Black's defense attorney already on the defensive.
• Sam Zell's bid for the Chicago Tribune is already "losing momentum," which means it's the perfect time for Team Burkle to swoop in!
The battle between Fox News and Tribune Co. rages on in the trademark dispute over the name "Red Eye." FNC's Greg Gutfeld-hosted middle-of-the-night show Red Eye carries a monicker too familiar for RedEye, the freebie daily that the Chicago Tribune publishes in its hometown. The two parties have finally hauled their asses into court, and the debating has begun. So what's the final deal shaping up to be?
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What we like most about red eyes: The Bliss Spa pack that JetBlue offers on those late night flights. What we like least: Every media property that adopts the name stinks worse than Dov Charney's drawls. So it's only natural that two of those media properties – the Chicago Tribune's daily freebie RedEye and Greg Gutfeld's late-night Red Eye show on Fox News – are clashing over the name.
Tribune is claiming copyright infringement and has scored a Feb. 26 court date. They're seeking a name change to Gutfeld's show, plus damages, given that FNC's Red Eye supposedly mimics the content in the giveaway newspaper. You know, since both happen to talk about very niche topics … like Anna Nicole Smith and the Oscars.
"Viewers are likely to assume Fox and the RedEye products owned by Tribune are collaborating, thereby causing confusion," the publishing company's suit, filed Wednesday, claimed.
And they might have a point. If Tribune Co. would have us testify, we're pretty damn sure we could convince a judge that it's easy to confuse a print product with a late night TV show when they're both steaming piles of crap.
• Harry Potter shows what's under his invisibility cloak. Again.
• The Chicago Tribune confuses Serena Williams with Beyonce Knowles; both women are offended.
• Slutty flight attendant changes her story, cops to joining Mile High Club with Ralph Fiennes.
• Ubiquitous cover girl Eva Mendes "slips" and admits Halle Berry has had a little bit of work done.
• OMG, could Grey's Anatomy really have killed off its self-involved protagonist? Will it have to rename it after one of its self-involved secondary characters??
• Pee-Wee Herman shows up to check out big-booty ho's at the premiere for Reno 911.
Editorial Director
