Tribune Company

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June 2009
- Lenders, Not Zell, May Run Tribune Co.
  
  Chicago Tribune | Jun 8, 09 1:09 PM CDT
  
  (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 »
May 2009
- Buyer Wants Belushi, Cusack, Murray In on Cubs Deal
  
  Chicago Tribune | May 19, 09 10:36 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Would-be Cubs buyer Tom Ricketts has approached a bunch of baseball-loving celebrities, including Bill Murray, Jim Belushi, and John Cusack, about going in with him on the team, the Chicago Tribune reports. Ricketts is asking each to pitch in $25 million, say sources—who add that Ricketts doesn’t need the money to close the deal with the Tribune Company. More »
April 2009
- 'I Made a Mistake' Buying Tribune Co.: Zell
  
  Bloomberg | Apr 15, 09 3:11 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Sam Zell is famous for his business acumen. He made a near-psychic call to sell his office-property company for billions just months before the market tanked. But the magnate now tells Bloomberg another deal he made was as boneheaded, in retrospect, as the Equity Office Properties deal was prescient: buying Tribune Co. just before the recession sounded the death knell for the traditional American newspaper. More »
March 2009
- Winning Blago Book Name: Rod and the Giant Impeach
  
  Chicago Tribune | Mar 6, 09 2:30 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - The people of Illinois have voted in a Chicago Tribune contest to name Rod Blagojevich’s upcoming memoir, and the winner is: Rod and the Giant Impeach . “I thought of the impeachment of the governor, and about my childhood,” the winner said of his inspiration, which scored him a 3-pound beef tongue. Runners-up: From Hair to Profanity ; They Paid Me a [Bleeping] Bucket of Cash to Write This [Bleeping] Book ; and God is My Comb Pilot . More »
January 2009
- Family Buying Cubs for $900M
  
  Chicago Tribune | Jan 22, 09 7:55 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - It looks like the Cubs are returning to family ownership, the Chicago Tribune reports. The billionaire Ricketts family is the winning bidder to buy the baseball team from Sam Zell's Tribune Co. The $900 million deal isn't sealed yet—other baseball owners must approve, for one thing—but it's expected to be complete before spring training in April. The Wrigley family owned the team for 65 years before selling to Tribune in 1981. More »
- Trib Goes Tabloid on Weekdays
  
  Chicago Tribune | Jan 13, 09 2:41 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - The Chicago Tribune is changing its street-sale format from broadsheet to tabloid beginning next week, the newspaper reports. The move, which will affect weekday retail editions but not subscription copies, puts the paper in direct competition with its rival, the Chicago Sun-Times , which has long published in the format. The Tribune’s editorial content will be the same in both editions. More »
- Auction for Cubs Nears End
  
  Chicago Tribune | Jan 6, 09 12:43 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - The bidding for the Cubs is nearly over. The Tribune Co. could select a winner from the three finalists within a week to 10 days, the Chicago Tribune reports, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the team is about to be sold. Tribune would still need to negotiate with the winner and could still pull the team off the market. More »
December 2008
- FBI Circled Around Blago's Wife for a Year
  
  Chicago Tribune | Dec 14, 08 7:28 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - She's known for ranting on an FBI tape—but that wasn’t the first time Patricia Blagojevich’s name has surfaced in the corruption probe of her governor husband, the Chicago Tribune reports. A federal investigation that began a year ago prompted Mrs. Blago to quit real estate work amid questions over whether clients hired her to win pull with hubby Rod Blagojevich. More »
- Blago Dialogue Worthy of Mamet
  
  Salon | Dec 10, 08 11:42 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - An astute reader of the criminal complaint against Rod Blagojevich will notice that, with shockingly little tweaking, the wiretapped conversations between the Illinois governor and his co-conspirators could be dialogue from a David Mamet play. Choire Sicha demonstrates in Salon, turning it into a quick one-acter. From the trash-talking femme fatale to the gangsterish attempts at logic, the story of the pol laid low by his arrogance and ambition almost seems like plagiarism. More »
- Complaint Shows Blago's Wife Plotted With Him
  
  Chicago Tribune | Dec 10, 08 11:15 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - Rod Blagojevich's wife was deeply involved in his alleged scheming, the Chicago Tribune reports, based on details in the federal complaint against the Illinois governor. Though Patricia Blagojevich has not been charged with a crime, she was a vocal party to wiretapped conversations. In one recording, she can be heard in the background hurling expletives at the Tribune Co. while the governor discusses Wrigley Field. More »
- Tribune Bankrupt One Day, Engulfed by News the Next
  
  Wall Street Journal | Dec 10, 08 9:32 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - What a difference a day makes for the Chicago Tribune , which yesterday broke the story of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s arrest, and was itself an object of his alleged corrupting intentions—just a day after its parent company declared bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal notes. “It’s pretty electric right now,” a top editor said of the newsroom atmosphere. More »
- Blago Charges Go Beyond Obama Seat
  
  Chicago Sun-Times | Dec 9, 08 1:22 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - In addition to bartering over President-elect Obama’s vacant Senate seat, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich sought campaign contributions in return for government action, and attempted to influence the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune , the Sun-Times reports. The FBI released transcripts of incriminating conversations today. “The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave,” US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said. More »
- Tribune Company Files for Bankruptcy
  
  Wall Street Journal | Dec 8, 08 2:09 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - The Tribune Company filed today for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, due to mounting debt and an inability to pay interest in the floundering economy, the Wall Street Journal reports. Tribune’s profits declined 83% in the third quarter, making it difficult to finance $12 billion in debt. The company has employed lawyers and financial advisers expert in assisting newspapers in trouble. More »
- Tribune May File for Bankruptcy This Week
  
  Wall Street Journal | Dec 7, 08 7:02 PM CST
  
  (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 »
- Cubs Brass Hope to Sell By February
  
  Chicago Tribune | Dec 6, 08 12:33 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Chicago Cubs brass expects the team to be sold by spring training, the Tribune reports. The chairman of the team, which is in the midst of a century-long title drought, says it is reviewing bids and could have a deal in place by February. Crane Kenney also shot down rumors that Sam Zell's Tribune Company would hold onto to a big part of the team. “Any interest would be a small interest,” he said. More »
- Zell 'Clueless' About Journalism and Democracy
  
  Daily Beast | Dec 2, 08 3:37 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Sam Zell may or may not turn the Tribune Company around, but his ownership has crippled “real newsgathering,” Peter Osnos writes in the Daily Beast. “If Tribune goes down, he will still be very rich,” Osnos continues, “but he will have presided over the evisceration of some of our best newspapers.” While Zell understands newspapers must make money, he ignores the commodity they sell: the news. More »
November 2008
- Extra! Extra! Obama Win Sells Out Newspapers
  
  Chicago Tribune | Nov 5, 08 10:14 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama’s victory was excellent news for the newspaper business. Papers sold out so fast the Chicago Tribune , Washington Post and Cincinnati Enquirer fired up presses for a second run, with the Post rattling off 150,000 extra copies. Lines formed outside the New York Times building and Tribune Tower; the Atlanta Journal-Constitution went so far as to move single-copy sales outside to keep up. More »
October 2008
- Obama Is First Democrat to Land Tribune Endorsement
  
  Chicago Tribune | Oct 17, 08 4:20 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - In its first-ever endorsement of a Democrat in a US presidential election, the Chicago Tribune touts Barack Obama as the candidate “to lead us through a perilous time and restore in us a common sense of national purpose.” It cites its backing of independents against Republicans as precedent, decisions similarly “driven by outrage at inept and corrupt business and political leaders.” More »
September 2008
- LA Times Staffers Sue Zell for Trashing Tribune
  
  Wall Street Journal | Sep 17, 08 10:15 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A group of current and former Los Angeles Times journalists is suing the Tribune Company for recklessly mismanaging the chain of newspapers, the Wall Street Journal reports. The suit claims billionaire boss Sam Zell has trashed the company in a hunt for quick profits, destroying the value of their pension and stock-ownership plans—though the stock plan is majority owner in the unusual buyout scheme. More »
July 2008
- LA Times Insider Launches Anti-Zell Blog
  
  New York Times | Jul 21, 08 8:14 AM CDT
  
  (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 »