• $3.7 billion in loans offered prior to Tribune Corp.’s sale source

• » … and here comes the lawsuit: A bunch of investors in Tribune Corp. have sued JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Citicorp and Bank of America for making those loans possible for the leveraged buyout that Sam Zell did, knowing that it’d be nearly impossible to get those funds back. In the process, the companies received $120 million in fees while Tribune floundered to the point that L.A. Times front pages like these are depressingly commonplace.

• I told you what the Chicago Tribune is not. Now let me tell you what it is. It’s reporters, photographers and editors, analysts and designers, and others who help us with the work. Our newspaper is just one part of Tribune Co., and what the corporate bosses do is separate from what we do.
• Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass • Making a spirited defense in favor of the Chicago Tribune, that little newspaper created in that building where a frat environment was reportedly fostered among the corporate wing. This is a really class thing to point out. The problem with Tribune is not the paper itself. The management – which occasionally makes awful decisions that affect the paper’s journalism – is the problem here. They bankrupted the company. They took Col. Robert McCormick’s sacred room and played poker games there. All the investigative journalists and reporters working their beat? They weren’t screwing around. Let’s be sure, when we’re ripping on Tribune Corp. for silly business practices, we’re making the distinction. (Thanks Amber Nettles) source

• disease Tribune Corp. was the subject of a massive New York Times exposé, describing the company as a bankrupt, immature, oversexed company. Not exactly good PR.
• symptom Off-the-wall Chief Innovation Officer Lee Abrams sends an e-mail to every Tribune staffer. It includes the word “sluts” and links to a satire that included nudity.
• cure On Friday, Abrams, who is responsible for ruining the radio industry, resigned. Perhaps this might be a change for the better for the troubled Tribune? Hah! source

• Here was this guy, who was responsible for all these people, getting drunk in front of senior people and saying this to a waitress who many of us knew. I have never seen anything like it.
• An anonymity-hidden former Tribune executive • Describing a scene where a top Tribune Corp. exec offered a waitress $100 to show him her breasts. If that doesn’t underline the frat-boy atmosphere of the company, we don’t know else would. The company, currently comprised of a bunch of former radio execs, was run into the ground thanks to Sam Zell, who leveraged relatively little of his own money to pay for the sale, but many of his employees’ pensions. Zell no longer has a day-to-day role in the company, which has somehow managed to wear its lack of respect for journalism as a badge of honor, one that shows itself with every layoff, with every questionable advertising decision (looking at you, L.A. Times) and with every disgusting detail of this New York Times story that we’re linking to right here. source

• This is meant in no way to attack the journalists of the L.A. Times. Just its management. Dear L.A. Times: Please stop selling out your front page – both online and in print – to TV and movie companies. Sincerely, everyone. This damages your credibility as a paper of record.

• We blame Lee Abrams, right. Our friends at the Newport News, Va. Daily Press got some awful news this week, when they found out that much of their paper’s copy-editing and design facilities would be outsourced to the Tribune Corp. mothership in Chicago. 10 percent of their newsroom staff will get laid off as a result of this. Lee Abrams, above, is responsible for starting something similar with the radio industry. So, here’s a brief explanation of what’s up with the Daily Press:

• Tribune is bankrupt The iconic media company, which owns the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the Hartford Courant and a ton of other major regional newspapers, is trying to cut costs whereever they can. So as a result, they’re trying to outsource where they can.
• slippery slope Tribune has already been down this road with many of their papers – they started doing a modular system for many of the inside pages of their papers last year. The result of what’s happening to the Daily Press is something of an extreme case of the process.
• Abrams is the point guy As the Chief Innovation Officer of Tribune, many of these changes happened due to his influence. He’s done this before. He invented the tools used to eventually turn radio into a soulless wasteland. Sure, he has XM under his belt, but his story’s already been written.

Turning news into Clear Channel

• This is a model that, particularly in smaller markets, although I can see it in larger markets as well, can change the economics of the newspaper business the same way Clear Channel changed the economics of … the radio business.
• Daily Press President and Chief Executive Digby Solomon • Regarding the changes, which are in the midst of taking hold. Many of the employees who followed Sam Zell to Tribune used to work for Clear Channel, which should give you an idea of what the company is trying to do. It’s everything you hate about radio, in newspaper form. Great. Hope you guys don’t succeed at sucking the life out of news. source