“A more gentlemanly version of the Chicago Tribune”
If anything demonstrates the stark contrast between the buttoned-up Tribune Co of yore versus the radio jockeys -led Tribune Co of now, it’s the illustration that greets readers on the Chicago Tribune web site’s error page.
If you’re expecting “a former waitress at Knockers — the place for hot racks and cold brews,” as a Sam Zell-led Tribune press release once trumpeted a new hire, you will be disappointed.
Instead, visitors are welcomed by one Colonel Tribune pictured on the left. He’s even on Facebook and describes himself as the following, ”Colonel Tribune is a man about town in Chicago. He’s also a more gentlemanly version of the Chicago Tribune.”
(Photo: Chicago Tribune)
The future of newspapers via Sam Zell
Sam Zell popped over to CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday to chat about real estate and investment opportunities in the U.S. and abroad. This being MediaFile, we were most interested in what Zell had to say about Tribune Co., the company that he helms and that is currently slogging its way through a bankruptcy with warring creditors.
Zell didn’t reveal a whole lot when asked about the Chapter 11 process but he did share his thoughts on the future of newspapers and that future involves… PDFs! Zell is pretty sweet on the idea that home delivery will just go away something the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News semi-embraced more than a year ago. Instead newspaper subscribers will be able to get electronic versions of the newspapers.
Here’s Zell on what he believes is in store for newspapers: ”Going forward it’s going to require all kinds of different approaches, including, probably the most significant, the elimination of home delivery and the replacement of it with PDFs. The iPad is the real example of almost replicating a newspaper on an instrument. I think that is only the beginning of how that is all going to evolve.”
Media, tech moguls meet in New York (You are NOT invited)
Media and technology executives are meeting Wednesday and Thursday in New York City at a conference hosted by private equity firm Quadrangle. Note the word private.
When they meet at the Plaza, they will talk about a ton of different things that their customers, their investors and other readers want to know. I have to apologize for them because they’re not letting in any riff-raff. And that includes reporters who get paid to spend all day figuring out how these people decide what kind of entertainment you want, what kind of technology you pay them for and what deals they pursue with the money that you give them when you buy their stock. This event always excludes press, but that’s no reason not to highlight what you probably are missing because of this. After all, who wants to wait for the 8-K filing?
Some press will be allowed, but it will be an assortment of celebrity journalists who will moderate panels and, according to Peter Kafka, author of “MediaMemo” at News Corp’s AllThingsD blog, will not write about the event (I’m talking about Maria Bartiromo and David Faber of CNBC, The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta, etc).
Peter wrote two posts about this, here and here. He also issued me a challenge to sneak into the conference, but horror of horrors, I’m on a deadline that I can’t shirk any longer. So consider this an invitation from me to you to go to the Plaza and catch these guys on the way in and out of the building. It’s a fun way to spend the day, and maybe you’ll learn something interesting.
Here is the agenda, courtesy of Peter Kafka. Below that is a list of speakers. Outrage breeds corrections: I have to amend the record: The list I had posted here of topics is last year’s agenda. My mistake. The list of speakers appearing THIS year still appears below.
2009 SPEAKERS EMILIO AZCÁRRAGA President, Board of Directors and CEO, Grupo Televisa DENNIS CROWLEY Co-Founder, foursquare BARRY DILLER Chairman and CEO, IAC; Chairman, Expedia, Inc. and Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. BRIAN DUNN CEO, Best Buy CHARLES FORMAN Founder, OMGPOP REED HASTINGS Founder, Chairman and CEO, Netflix REID HOFFMAN Executive Chairman and Founder, LinkedIn Corporation CHAD HURLEY CEO and Co-Founder, YouTube JEFF IMMELT Chairman and CEO, GE PAUL JACOBS Chairman and CEO, Qualcomm Incorporated OLLI-PEKKA KALLASVUO President and CEO, Nokia JASON KILAR CEO, Hulu LESLIE MOONVES President and CEO, CBS Corporation ANNE MULCAHY Chairman, Xerox Corporation JAMES MURDOCH Chairman and Chief Executive, Europe & Asia, News Corporation BRIAN PHILLIPS CEO and Co-Founder, Thread DAN PORTER CEO, OMGPOP BRIAN ROBERTS Chairman and CEO, Comcast Corporation PAUL SAGAN President and CEO, Akamai ERIC SCHMIDT Chairman and CEO, Google IVAN SEIDENBERG Chairman and CEO, Verizon Communications BIZ STONE Co-Founder, Twitter HOWARD STRINGER Chairman, CEO and President, Sony Corporation BEN VERWAAYEN CEO, Alcatel-Lucent DAVID ZASLAV President and CEO, Discovery Communications
MODERATORS MARC ANDREESSEN General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz KEN AULETTA Author and Writer, “Annals of Communications”, The New Yorker MARIA BARTIROMO Anchor, Closing Bell; Host & Managing Editor, Wall Street Journal Report, CNBC JAMES CITRIN Co-Leader, Board & CEO Practice, North America, Spencer Stuart DAVID FABER Anchor, Reporter, CNBC MICHAEL HUBER Co-President and Managing Principal, Quadrangle Group BECKY QUICK Co-Anchor, Squawk Box, CNBC GEOFFREY SANDS Director & Leader, Global Media, Entertainment & Information Practice, McKinsey & Co. JOSHUA L. STEINER Co-President and Managing Principal, Quadrangle Group GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS Anchor, This Week; Chief Washington Correspondent, ABC News
Haha. I absolutely loved the tone and tenor of this write-up. Says a lot! (And oh, why did Reuters have to allow blogs and columns after I left–conspiracy!)Also loved the Michael Moore comment. Last journo left standing?;-)
Did *anyone* like the Los Angeles Times ads?
You have to hand it to Sam Zell and his band of outsiders at bankrupt media company Tribune Co. They are going to remake the newspaper business if it kills them.
The gang got broiled for a front-page ad that the Los Angeles Times ran last week that looked like an article. After that outcry, the Tribune-owned paper did it again, this time with another an ad supplement for Paramount’s movie, “The Soloist.” That one includes an interview with Steve Lopez, the Times columnist who wrote the book that became the movie. The ad also ran under the LA Times’s own banner.
As it turns out, nearly everyone who cares enough to talk about these ads in public despises them. You could have said that LA Times employees were just kvetching when they circulated a petition voicing their opposition to the ads — broke down and dispirited by bankruptcy, and repeated waves of layoffs, they stuck to the old line that there needs to be a distinction between ads and editorial copy for various ethical reasons.
Now we can add LA Times Executive Editor John Arthur to the mix. Here’s The Wrap:
Arthur, who was on vacation last week, said he was blindsided by the ad… The editor said it was initially envisioned to go down the right side of the front page, usually the space reserved for the paper’s lead story. “I’d been told an ad like that was coming, and before my trip I’d complained about it,” he said. “But I was told it was not imminent, that an ad of this shape was weeks or months away — May or June was mentioned to me.”
Arthur was also critical of a four-page advertising supplement about the upcoming Paramount movie “The Soloist,” which was published on Sunday under the signature Los Angeles Times banner. … “I thought the type font that was used in the words ‘The Soloist’ at the top was uncomfortably close to the font we use in section fronts,” Arthur said, adding that he did not know that the supplement was coming either. Lopez could not be reached for comment.
But Lynne Segall, vice president for entertainment advertising at the paper, retorted in an email to TheWrap: “Russ Stanton, his boss, the editor of the paper, approved both advertorial units. The ad department in this company is not in a position nor would we ever be allowed to go out in the market to sell units like this without editorial vetting and giving us permission first.”
Good Riddince…the news on both coast..Ny Times and LA Times deserve to simply die…They made their pact with the left to become mimics for every wack job left idea…so..they reap what they sow. Hope they Both Fold.
Murdoch’s paper love: LA Times next?
Rumors of Rupert Murdoch’s interest in buying The New York Times have been swirling for ages, and maybe the media mogul would have snapped up the venerable paper by now were it not for the Sulzbergers.
But there’s always a consolation prize, and this one’s from the West Coast. Variety writes that Murdoch could be interested in buying The Los Angeles Times and has been talking “fervently” about making a play for the paper.
And that would surely be an easier purchase to pull off, given that LA Times’ owner Tribune is in the middle of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Maybe Sam Zell, who owns Tribune, would be more willing to sell the paper to a fellow mogul than the Sulzbergers.
Keep an eye on:
- Washington Post Co’s profit sinks but revenue rises on strength of its education and cable units. (Reuters)
- Hearst Corp may sell or close down San Francisco Chronicle. (San Francisco Chronicle)
- MySpace founders may leave the social networking company. (Financial Times)
All eyes on Goldman — the conference, that is
We’ll be paying close attention to Goldman Sachs today for reasons other than the wrenching financial crisis. Our interest relates to the investment bank’s Communacopia conference, an annual meeting of some top media players.
Of course, it’s impossible to escape Wall Street’s woes, even at a media conference. After all, there are questions about the ripple effect on the economy — and that includes the advertising business, the bread and butter of media.
We spoke to a number of experts and the consensus was that while financial services make up just 6 percent of advertising spending in the United States, which is no small sum, the bigger issue is the influence that the crisis has on confidence throughout Corporate America. Watching this week’s turmoil, will corporations be as free with spending?
Here’s how Zain Raj, chief executive of Euro RSCG Discovery, a unit of France’s Havas advertising company, put it:
”Normally, when Wall Street sneezes, Madison Avenue ignores it. In this case, Wall Street has pneumonia and Madison Avenue better realize it.”
Whether in presentations or on the sidelines of Communacopia, that’s sure to be a topic of conversation. Let’s hear what News Corp, Time Warner and CBS, among others, have to say.
Keep an eye on:
Sam Zell: You’re fired! Now let’s move on…
Tribune Co is making good on its promise to use its own reporters to break news about Tribune. It’s not the company’s fault if that news is depressing.
Chief Executive Sam Zell held a conference call with reporters at its papers on Tuesday, prompting a profusion of press coverage in Tribune-owned publications on Wednesday. Some of the most interesting excerpts showed up in The Hartford Courant:
Tribune Co. CEO Sam Zell Tuesday defended his decision to order large cuts at newspapers across the chain, including The Courant, saying that no one could have predicted the dramatic drop in advertising revenue that followed his takeover of the company seven months ago.
Zell, in a conference call with Tribune reporters, said newspapers are confronting “some of the worst advertising numbers in the history of the world,” and said the only alternative to eliminating employees and cutting the size of the papers would be to allow the businesses to fail.
“The reality is, what’s my choice?” Zell asked. “Do I try and create a business that can be viable and preserve two-thirds of the jobs? Or do I let all 100 percent of them go by the wayside because I’m not willing to confront the realities of the environment?”
What about his desire, expressed earlier this year, that he not make the business all about cutting jobs?
“I don’t believe it’s fair to hold me to the sentence that I expressed when I was [in Hartford] six months ago,” Zell said. “I don’t know that anybody has a frame of reference on advertising revenue destruction that, in effect, is as bad as this, going all the way back to the Depression. So I think the circumstances are dramatically worse than anyone could have possibly predicted.”
More coverage here:
The Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
The fact that the messenger (and hatchet man) is extremely unlikable, doesn’t negate the reality that newspapers are businesses that must make money. In terms of content, I think one area that hasn’t been nearly explored enough is diversity of thought. Newspaper are nowhere near the homogenous left-wing dens of closemindedness that many in the right believe they are. They are, however, in general very left of center and in need of fresh voices. The right was pushed into the media ghetto known as AM Radio ( not to mention the internet ) and they built it into prime media real estate. Too bad old-school media executives cannot see the forest through the trees so as to realize that the right is not extremist as a rule.
Technically, newspapers are flocking, belatedly, to the internet and doing things that they should have been doing 10 years ago. The industry is ancient and not very maneuverable. I’m looking for a handful of Mavericks with new paradigms to jumpstart the newspaper industry. That won’t happen from within the industry, I’m afraid. I expect more painful changes and evolution. Less so when the economy bucks up.
Who’s Watching Steve Jobs?
If Steve Jobs’ well-being is somehow symbiotic with Apple Inc’s well-being, shouldn’t there be an application for tracking his whereabouts?
Someone must have a lucrative business plan for creating an “EDtv” or “The Truman Show” around the guru of the iPod Mac and iPhone.
Perhaps, this exclusive content could be piped to all Apple TV set-top boxes — for a fee. At the very least, how about a desktop widget that shows where in the world Steve Jobs is.
Its a scenario so fantastic that one wonders why noone has already discussed it. But maybe some have come close. The Wall Street Journal says one hedge fund in 2004 hired private investigators to follow Apple’s CEO to hospital visits, hoping to glean information about how sick, or well, he was. Remember — that was the year that Jobs had surgery to cure pancreatic cancer, a fact the company waited months to disclose.
All of this comes because of concerns about Jobs appearance of late, the company’s cloudy response to questions about his health, and their reluctance to disclose a successor-in-waiting at Apple that can match Jobs’s legendary status — and reassure shareholders.
For what its worth, the New York Times says all this sick talk is nonsense, and that Jobs has reassured people that he is “doing well” and free of cancer.
Given that Gateway and Oracle and many other entrepreneur-driven tech companies have struggled with succession issues, Jobs can lead the pack by introducing the kind of succession strategy that none of his peers have been able to implement. Perhaps he can unveil a management structure that ensures that product and marketing innovation will be a permanent part of Apple no matter who is ultimately in charge. Whatever the plan is, it must have the dynamic Jobs’ stamp and show that the brand essentials of both Jobs and Apple will be preserved and honored in the future.
Talking bylines with new Chicago Tribune editor
Tribune Co is keeping media reporters and headline writers busy these days with news of how the company is trying to turn around its newspaper business and stay afloat under billions of dollars in debt – all while creating a culture that, as Chicago real estate tycoon and newly minted press baron Sam Zell says, does not take itself too seriously.
That is growing more difficult as the company embarks on another round of job cuts at its papers, sparking fear and loathing among employees, and launches an ambitious plan to redo the papers’ sizes and looks. Tribune also set journalism types’ tongues a-wagging with its plan to review reporter productivity as a possible condition for staying on board. That might not sound so controversial, except that many people have interpreted that as saying it’s not about the quality of your stories, it’s about the quantity.
Gerould Kern, Tribune’s vice president of editorial and the successor to departing Chicago Tribune editor Ann Marie Lipinski, addressed some of these topics in a phone interview with Reuters.
Q: What is your immediate task as the new editor of the Chicago Tribune?
A: As we report almost daily, the newspaper business is in a crisis. And I want to do everything I can in my power to save it. And you know, the Chicago Tribune has played a huge role in the history of the nation and the city, and I know it and I’m proud of it and I want that history to stretch far into the future. So I’m optimistic that we can solve these economic problems, the economic dislocation that faces us and that we’re not only going to survive but thrive in the future.
Q: How do you make the business thrive with fewer people?
A: I think it becomes a lot harder and that’s going to force us to be a lot more innovative and entrepreneurial and resourceful than we’ve ever been before. There’s been a lot of misinformation and confusion about productivity as a topic. I think the idea’s fairly simple. Let’s turn over every stone, let’s do every smart thing we can to stretch the resources, to use them to serve people and build our audiences and bring in revenue to support journalism.
If the only measure of journalism is the number of readers (and we know that the larger the headline, the greater the audience),then it will all Rupert, all the time. Then again, Zell obviously yearns to leave his mark on the public face. There is no other explanation for the mindless and inane and schlocky musings of Randy Michaels. The entire mess is a train wreck. Yet Zell has relatively nothing to lose. You bet the Trib people, including those related to Trib people, are suffering beyond the horizon and all you Zell people have for us are crusty cliches and platitudes from the old rehab days. So have a happy day. We will be sure to crank out the content instead of writing the stories.
More Tribune layoffs coming? Not yet.
When we saw a memo hit the blogs this week saying that more Tribune layoffs could be coming, we put the reporting machinery into motion — only to find out that apparently it’s not true.
While future layoffs are perhaps inevitable, the latest memo authored by Chief Executive Sam Zell turned out to not be “latest” at all.
The subject line, which you can see at the Los Angeles Times Pressmens 20 Year Club, says “Reducing staff,” always a promising sign of news. Then there was this:
It is within this context that I am announcing we must reduce the number of staff positions within the publishing group and corporate office through a combination of voluntary separation programs, involuntary layoffs, attrition and closing of open positions. Each of our newspapers is making its own decision about which programs best suit its needs.
But here’s the thing. When we checked with Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman, he noted the similarity between this memo and one Zell had written in February. In fact, it’s the same memo, Weitman said, but with a June 2 date now. A source at one of Tribune’s papers who is not necessarily a friend of management confirmed that the memo is from February.
We’re asking our other Trib sources elsewhere in the empire to see if they got anything more recently, especially as Zell gets ready to update lenders on Tribune’s financial status this afternoon. We’re also waiting to hear back from Padgett and from Fading to Black, a death-of-newspapers site that picked up Padgett’s post.
(Photo: Reuters)
