Real estate magnate Sam Zell took control of the newly private Tribune Co. on Thursday and began shaking up the newspaper and TV company the moment the $8.2 billion buyout he led closed, reshuffling the board and promising more action.
Zell made clear he would not hesitate to make sweeping changes at the media conglomerate even though he has no previous experience in the industry.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dennis FitzSimons resigned Wednesday and was replaced by Zell, who indicated an interest in the top job two months ago, Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman said.
Zell signaled he had no immediate asset sales in mind at the company that owns 23 television stations and nine daily newspapers, including the Baltimore Sun, but the Chicago Cubs baseball team and Wrigley Field are to be auctioned off by July.
Upon his ascension Thursday, Zell moved quickly to remake the new company in his image by proposing five new board members: Jeffrey Berg, Brian Greenspun, William Pate, Maggie Wilderotter and Frank Wood ? a mix of people with ties to both the media and Zell.
“We?re actually very excited about the merger,” Sun spokeswoman Linda Yurche said. “I think what Sam Zell said about the way he envisions operating the company are perfectly in line with the way [The Sun operates].”
Yurche indicated, however, that a recent streamlining in which the paper?s editorial page was reorganized under Editor Tim Franklin resulted in the resignation of Editorial Page Editor Dianne Donovan.
“I think some others are leaving in editorial,” Sun reporter and Baltimore-Washington Newspaper Guild President Bill Salganik said of the changes.
“There have been some departing bosses besides Donovan,” Salganik added, “in building operations, the mail room, midlevel people ? on the order of half a dozen in the last three weeks.”
The $34-per-share, leveraged merger ? toward which Zell invested $315 million and obtained a warrant for a 40 percent company share ? recently obtained $4.2 billion in second-step financing and Federal Communications Commission approval of the now-tax-exempt company?s media cross-ownership plans.
This final cash infusion increases the company?s debt burden to about $13 billion and ? in an era of tight credit, declining newspaper revenues and shrinking circulation ? gives Zell reason to streamline subordinate staffs and possibly sell “non-core” assets like The Sun.
“There are always rumors about that,” said Ted Venetoulis, spokesman for a local group interested in buying the paper. He added, however, that repeated overtures to Zell have been ignored.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
