Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Chicago Tribune goes bankrupt!
What a great day for the conservative McCormick family. They squeezed more money out of Sam Zell when they sold the properties to him than what they were worth. Then they see the left leaning Zell change the Tribune from a somewhat conservative newspaper to a left wing rag like the LA Times. So now Zell is seeing a lot of the old line Tribune subscribers drop their subscriptions and wondering why. The ghost of Colonel McCormick is now smiling. We already have a rag in Chicago named the Sun Times any idiot could figure out that when you change the Trib to be like the Sun Times you have created a recipe for economic disaster. My only wish is that Sam Zell had more of his personal net worth tied to the price of Tribune stock.
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3 comments:
You are criticizing a fellow M grad?
Zell was a genius in the real estate markets and he understood all the elements of the business. His timing proved to be prescient on many occasions. That said, I wondered why he was leaving his area of expertise to execute the Tribune deal. He was buying a buggy whip business well after autos were on the roads.
I know it was hyper leveraged and he will remain a very wealthy man. Nonetheless, it is a terrible blow to his reputation, which at this point is all that really matters to him.
Would someone please opine on how a country can consistently reject these left leaning outlets yet elect a socialist for president?
Reject "left leaning outlets"?! Not counting radio, there is no such rejection that I am aware of.
Newspapers of all editorial views are struggling due to the internet as well as the current advertising market, which is falling faster than the nose diving economy. The newspaper's current business model is unsustainable.
Finally - as Mark implied - the Tribune deal was extremely leveraged and it was consummated just in time for the worst economy in 70 years.
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