Times to Ax 300 Jobs, Local News Section

Saddled with debt, media company looks at Chapter 11

(NEWSER) - The Tribune Co. has hired a financial adviser to help it file for bankruptcy as early as this week, the Wall Street Journal reports. Facing $12 billion in debt and shrinking profits, the owner of the Chicago Cubs and several newspapers has also brought in legal counsel to guide it through bankruptcy court. The Tribune's new adviser, Lazard Ltd., is savvy at debt restructuring and has helped other newspaper companies. More»

Anonymous journo bashes paper's owner as heads keep rolling

(NEWSER) - Heads continue to roll at the Tribune Company, but one staffer is aiming to prove the pen is mightier than Sam Zell's ax, reports the New York Times, with new blog TellZell.com. The site is airing the gripes of Tribune's disgruntled journalists, and is finding plenty of fodder—from top-level resignations at the LA Times to publishing the unreleased list of employees facing layoffs. More»

Where unfair bonuses are concerned, media firms rival Wall Street: David Carr

(NEWSER) - USA Today applauded Occupy Wall Street for attacking firms that give “huge bonuses” to execs who makes terrible decisions. The paper’s right—but it’s being hypocritical. Gannett, owner of USA Today, is a champion of “bonus excess despite miserable operations,” David Carr writes in the New York Times . Gannett's recently-resigned CEO Craig Dubow oversaw the loss of 20,000 employees, and "strip-mined its newspapers in search of earnings"—yet he departed, because of health problems, not performance issues, with some $37 million in benefits. More»

Boss Randy Michaels 'offered $100 to waitress to flash her breasts'

(NEWSER) - The shockingly sexist frat boy hijinks of top managers of the Tribune Company created an alienating workplace and "bankrupt culture" that helped send the financially troubled media firm into a tailspin, reports the New York Times . Just after radio exec Randy Michaels was hired by billionaire owner Sam Zell to help run the company, he allegedly offered $100 to a waitress to flash her breasts for a gathering of senior management at a Chicago hotel, the paper reports. "I have never seen anything like it," said one executive. “Here was this guy, who was responsible for all these people, getting drunk and saying this to a waitress who many of us knew." More»

(NEWSER) - The bankrupt Tribune Company could emerge from protection with its top creditors—and not chairman Sam Zell—in charge, the Chicago Tribune reports. Zell exerts control based on $90 million he spent to secure the option of buying 40% of the company for $500 million, and a $250 million loan. Those numbers pale in comparison to the $8.6 billion Tribune owes lenders with first dibs on assets. More»