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]
Sam Zell, who continues to ruin all that remains good and honest with the beleaguered newspaper industry – a list that includes just the comics page, and those Best Buy circulars, at this point – is taking out one more strand of fishing wire and tying it around the neck of the Los Angeles Times, one of the Tribune Co.'s flagship newspapers that Zell has taken a liking for abusing. Rather than letting the editorial team there, led by editor Russ Stanton, operate the paper's Sunday magazine as it always has, Zell sneakily hired an entire new staff for the weekly LAT Magazine without telling anyone. And that staff, it turns out, is part of the business side of the newspaper, not the editorial unit. CONTINUED »
It's not like Sam Zell ever promised to keep anyone around at the Los Angeles Times. He's got billions in debt he needs to keep stable, which means he's got a couple plans up his sleeve. Obvious first choice: job cuts. Except Zell calls this down-sizing "right-sizing," because, based on his calculations that the average LAT journo produces the equivalent of 51 pages a year, while competitors in Hartford and Baltimore spit out 300 pages, the current staff overload is just waste. And so all of this will bring into focus his other big task, which is evening out the editorial:advertising ratio to 1:1, which will also allow him to shrink the actual size of the paper and the number of pages printed per year. And finally, Zell has taken to addressing his thousands of employees as "partners," if only because the future of the Times, and its debt load, depend on their stock-option plan.
Sam Zell names Randy Michaels, the former broadcasting and interactive divisions chief, as COO of Tribune Co., putting him in charge of the company's newspapers. [LAT]
In case the paparazzization of the Associated Press didn't have you worried about one of the world's most ubiquitous news services, perhaps its new hires will. Sam Zell and Rupert Murdoch are both joining the AP's board, it was announced today at a meeting where chairman William Dean Singleton mixed up "Osama" with "Obama."
The duo have been elected to three year terms, which is more than enough time for Rupert to BlackBerry Messenger Sam underneath the board room table with tips about how to swindle David Geffen into buying the Los Angeles Times.
That, or to chuckle about the New York Press' Wall Street Journal parody. CONTINUED »
Is David Geffen making a third try for the Los Angeles Times? Nikki Finke's gossips say yes, though Geffen has been yachting in the South Pacific for a few weeks, and it's possible he never had those super secret talks with Sam Zell that have been reported. [DHD]
"Another freaking Clear Channel Communications executive on the payroll and this one's been named President of Tribune Interactive," announces a press release from Sam Zell's Tribune Co. . And it gets ZANIER from there! CONTINUED »
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.
"H—, I put $315 million into this thing, and we're on the hook for $13 billion—the least I ought to get is my name on the company's stationery," writes Same Zell in his April Fools' Day press release. Hey, at least he made the effort: He even made over the Tribune Co.'s homepage into the fictional ZellCoMediaEnterprises Inc. [WSJ]
The 160-year-old Tribune Company, which Sam Zell bought last April for a complex deal worth $8.2 billion, is floundering. Its newspapers are up for sale, ad revenue is down 15 percent, he's willing to rename the Chicago Cubs' Wrigley Field for the right price (though who knows if that'll happen), and he's been touring his properties in a storm of curses. He's combining television and print operations – literally squeezing a TV studio insider a newsroom – created the position of "chief innovation officer" and prepping staffers for the rest of 2008 by telling them a "shitty year" is ahead. So how does the borderline-septuagenarian fancy himself? "'The challenge is, how do we get somebody 126 years old to get it up?' Zell said, referring to the newspaper. 'Well … I'm your Viagra.'"
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 »
A whole slew of folks are accepting buyout offers to leave the Los Angeles Times as part of yet another round of Sam Zell-issued job cuts. The person we're saddest to see go? Darrell Kunitomi, tour guide. [LAO]
Another joke about office porn may be stale and in bad taste, but we don’t care: L.A. Times reporters may have access to all the NSFW content they want, but the rest of their job leaves something to be desired.
Since David Hiller took over as publisher of the Los Angeles paper 16 months ago, things have been rough out there.
There was the very public departure of Jim O’Shea.
The announcement that the paper will be cutting 50 jobs.
Ad revenue fell 8.5%, lower than the industry average, and the paper has lost major money in classified ads.
No one has any confidence in the new editor, Russ Stanton.
Sam Zell, the newish owner of the Times, pretends to care about great journalism, but is ultimately concerned with the bottom line.
Yesterday, John Montorio, one of two managing editors, announced that he was leaving at the end of the month. Most Times employees see Hiller as “star-struck outsider, a meddler in the newsroom who does not understand journalism or Los Angeles.”
As always, the rumors were true. The new L.A. Times editor (read: next head on the chopping block) is Russ Stanton, who is currently the editor of LATimes.com.
Stanton replaces Jim O'Shea, who you might remember, did not leave quietly.
Stanton will come into power following Sam Zell's motivational porn-at-the office go ahead and his less motivational layoffs at the Tribune Co.
And as long as we're on the topic of changes at the L.A. Times, circulation chief Jack Klunder will become president of the paper.
Some at the Times do not believe Stanton has the stature or experience to take-over the job. But this man collects bobble-heads, just like Dwight Schrute. And we all know how effective Schrute Bucks are.
Full memo after the jump. CONTINUED »
Don’t you hate when people apologize, but really just blame you? Like, if we were to say, "sorry this site is riddled with grammatical errors, but maybe you should get back to checking for copy editing mistakes in your own work?"
Actually, we are sorry about any grammatical errors on this site. Please stay here and click all around. Don’t go looking for copy editing mistakes in your own work.
Sam “Watch X-Tube in the Office” Zell did just that. He sent out what he described as a mea culpa but wasn’t at all:
In some of these meetings, I used language that was deliberately outrageous. … You may not like me or the way I say things, but I’m thrilled and delighted that for the first time, you may actually have an opinion about your CEO. … So I ask you, when was the last time the industry sat up to take notice of Tribune, or cared what we had to say? …Extremism in the pursuit of opportunity is not a vice. You’ve seen me step over the edge, if only to get you to take a few steps toward the line.
We’re confused about this mythical line: What does pornography at work have to do with great journalism? It’s times like this we’re happy the Tribune Company isn't hiring.
Let’s say you worked at a paper that had gone through four senior editors in three years and the general state of journalism was like your toilet after a big cup of coffee. And let’s say you lived in Los Angeles. And how about we quit the hypotheticals and say you work for the L.A. Times?
Well, then Jim O’Shea’s departure couldn’t have felt good. Because when he was ousted, he either was supremely bitter or incredibly honest—or maybe a little bit of both—and basically said the whole Times operation was crap. You’re probably interested in another job, but resigned to the fact that finding a new position at a paper on par with the L.A. Times is next to impossible.
But fear not, Sam Zell, owner of the Tribune Co., came in to make everyone feel better by talking smack on O’Shea, saying "[O'Shea] pissed all over the company where he worked for over 30 years.” But lest any reporters would take issue, Zell won them over by encouraging porn watching at work as long as masturbating and sexual harassment didn't get in the way of deadlines.
What a kidder. But seriously, your jobs are not secure.
So while you were enjoying your three day weekend, Jim O’Shea was getting all outraged about getting fired from the L.A. Times over financial disputes, the demise of print journalism, etc.
In the past three years, four senior editors have left the L.A. Times complaining about budget cuts. Effectively, the L.A. Times is that guy who can’t commit that every girl thinks she can change. Rumors have it that the next editor who believes newspapers can change is former business editor Russ Stanton, who currently is the head of editorial content at latimes.com. CONTINUED »
O'SHEA CAN YOU SEE For the fourth time in three years, Tribune Co.'s Los Angeles Times ousts a chief. Gone is editor James O'Shea, removed by publisher David Hiller for refusing to cut jobs in the newsroom, which happened to publisher Jeffrey Johnson last year. And just when we almost started believing the gospel that suggested we start believing the tarot card reading that hinted new owner Sam Zell might take pity of his work force. [NYT]
MERE PENNIES Sam Zell, who just made himself chief executive of his newly purchased Tribune Co., on his $8.2 billion purchase: "I think it’s a very low-risk investment." [NYT]
