Tribune’s Zell to Give Management Chance to ‘Prove Itself’

The Tribune Co., free of the distractions caused by declining stock prices and Wall Street scrutiny, will have a chance to prove itself now that it has gone private, believes Sam Zell, the billionaire winner of the bid for the company.

The Tribune’s poor performance in the past few years was affected by external distractions which were “very, very difficult” and which “dramatically impacted the ability of the company to function,” he is quoted as saying in The Chicago Tribune.

He plans to give Tribune management, led by chief executive Dennis FitzSimons, a chance to prove itself.

At the very least, that means that he does not intend to influence the editorial direction of his newspapers, he said. “Do I look naive enough to think I have any influence about what people write?”
As for layoffs, he said, “To be honest with you, I don’t know anything about job cuts. My focus is not to look at this thing and see how we can eliminate one more table leg, because, frankly, eliminating a couple more of this or that isn’t going to make this work. What’s going to make this work is raising revenue.”