Tribune: A Leaner, More Open Company

Sam Zell, Randy Michaels, Chandler Bigelow Outline Company’s Strategy During Conference Call

By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/17/2008 3:57:00 PM

New Tribune chairman and CEO Sam Zell will look to deal some assets and promote a collaborative spirit in an effort to steer the beleaguered media giant to profitability.

Zell, interactive and broadcasting CEO and executive vice president Randy Michaels and chief financial officer Chandler Bigelow shared their strategy on a conference call from Chicago Thursday during which Zell vowed to make Tribune a “faster and leaner … 24/7 content/entertainment provider.”

Zell said a harsh economic climate forced him to consider dealing properties. He added that he expected to sell the Chicago Cubs at some point this year and had “reached no conclusion” as to whether the daily paper Newsday should be divested.

The mogul said he received some 3,000 employee e-mails and had face time with scores more staffers during an “internal road show” conducted within his first 90 days on the job, adding that he heard the phrase, “breath of fresh air,” time and again. “We believe we are changing the culture,” he said.

Michaels, too, spoke of shifting Tribune from a rigidly segmented corporate operation to one of self-starting and collaboration. He said the newspapers are employing more of an incentive-based model for sales, and papers and TV alike would play up local news. Michaels said the shift of KSWB San Diego from a CW outlet to Fox boosted the station’s intrinsic value by $150 million, and he was generally optimistic about Tribune’s broadcast holdings. “Broadcasting has paced well above the industry,” he added. “There’s a lot of upside to the stations, particularly the Fox stations.”

A former Clear Channel Communications executive, Michaels said there would be a relaunch of superstation WGN Chicago in May, and he called the integration of WSFL Miami and the South Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper, with the Sentinel publisher overseeing the station, “an interesting experiment” that might work elsewhere in the Tribune universe, such as Los Angeles and Sacramento, Calif.

On the interactive front, Michaels said the company would focus on fewer digital projects, but ones that feature greater revenue potential.

The Tribune brain trust said further steps would be taken to shake up the staid Tribune culture. “We’ve had a visible shift in company culture, but we’re not there yet,” Zell concluded. “The vast majority of our employees are eager for change.”