More Tribune layoffs

So does that leave Sakomano as the only prep guy on staff?

 

What specifically are you referring?

 

"World Ends: Women, Minorities Hardest Hit"

 

Is what I thought...

 

From what I understand from three people who were hit, there was no pattern to the terminations except a large number of minorities and women were hit hard.

 

Has the photographer who gave Zell shit about puppies on the front page been involuntaroly separated yet?

 

That photog worked in Orlando and left before the layoffs for a job, I believe, for a nonprofit agency.

 

More bad news:

By JEREMY HERRON Ž
AP Business Writer Ž

NEW YORK (AP) — Fitch Ratings on Friday cut Tribune Co.’s credit rating further into “junk” status and said more reductions may come if newspaper advertising revenue declines keep accelerating.
Fitch sliced Tribune’s rating two notches to “CCC” from “B-” and gave it a “negative” outlook, which means the rating could fall again in the next eight to 12 months.
A “CCC” rating means “default is a real possibility, and the capacity to meet financial commitments is vulnerable to deterioration in business and economic conditions,” Fitch said. Its ratings reflect a company’s likely ability to repay debt. Lenders use them to set loan terms.
Tribune, whose papers include the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, owes about $13.4 billion, Fitch said. The bulk was incurred when real estate mogul Sam Zell led an $8.2 billion buyout last year, taking the company private.
The company expected its newspaper and broadcast revenue to cover interest and principal on the debt. But advertising revenue has fallen by double-digit percentages at most Tribune newspapers this year, forcing Tribune to cut costs, including staff, and to sell assets to raise money.
Fitch said it is “cautious” about newspaper companies’ “prospects for capturing and monetizing the significant volume of advertising dollars that are migrating toward the Internet.”
Most publishers have been growing their online ad revenues, but they still can’t charge nearly as much for online ads as they used to for print.
Fitch analyst Mike Simonton downplayed media reports Thursday that quoted Zell saying the company’s liquidity — its revenue minus operating expenses — won’t be a concern for the next seven years.
“Liquidity isn’t a pressing concern over the next two to three quarters,” Simonton said. “But it is difficult to foresee how the company would have the capacity to meet its interest obligations beyond three or four quarters without selling more assets.”
If ad revenue continues falling at its current pace, Simonton said, the company will be forced to liquidate more of what he calls “valuable” holdings.
Tribune officials declined to comment on the downgrade and have generally declined to comment on the company’s plans for its assets.
Tribune has already sold the Long Island daily Newsday to Cablevision Systems Corp. for more than $600 million. It used the proceeds from that sale to help repay $807 million in principal in the second quarter.
Tribune is reportedly considering the sale of its headquarters building in Chicago and its Times Mirror Square building in Los Angeles.
Tribune has a principal payment of $593 million due in June. To raise cash, Zell plans to sell the Chicago Cubs baseball team and its Wrigley Field stadium, along with its 25 percent stake in Comcast Corp.’s Chicago sports channel.
Even if that sale goes through by the end of this year, as Zell plans, and it helps cover payments through the next few quarters, Tribune’s revenue may fall too fast for it to keep up with what it owes beyond 2009, Fitch said.
Bidding for the sports properties has entered a second round, after Tribune whittled a field of more than 10 bidders down to five major groups that each offered at least $1 billion, according to people familiar with the situation who declined to be named because of confidentiality agreements.
Internet billionaire Mark Cuban, who owns basketball’s Dallas Mavericks, and the Ricketts family, which founded the brokerage that is now TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., are considered the two front-runners because they are thought to have the best funding.
A group led by Hersch Klaff, who owns a Chicago commercial real estate firm, also made the cut.
Another finalist, Leo Hindery, the cable pioneer who runs InterMedia Partners and set up YES Network, which carries New York Yankees games, is thought to be eyeing the sports channel in particular.
A fifth bidding group is led by Michael Tokarz, head of MVC Capital Inc., and includes Fred Malek, a politically active financier and baseball insider who ran the Montreal Expos earlier this decade.
Tribune rejected a bid from Sports Properties Acquisition Corp. in the initial phase. But that group’s $200 million in cash for acquisitions — and board members Henry Aaron, the former home-run king, and Jack Kemp, the former senator and football star — make it an attractive possible partner.

 

I haven't read Friedman in a few years. His stuff was terrific when he worked in Anchorage.

 

Chicago Tribune announces new editors
Managing editor shifts from tabloid RedEye

By Michael Oneal | Chicago Tribune reporter
August 22, 2008

Gerould Kern, the freshly minted editor of the Chicago Tribune, unveiled his new management team Thursday, naming Jane Hirt, the editor of Tribune's RedEye edition, as managing editor, and Bill Adee, associate managing editor for innovation, as his editor of digital media.

James Warren, managing editor/features, will leave the paper, completing a management exodus that has largely rewritten the Tribune's masthead in the eight months since real estate magnate Sam Zell took the paper's parent company private in an $8.2 billion leveraged buyout.

rest of story: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-fri_tribune-reorgaug22,0,4592450.story

 

Joe Knowles and Luft are terrific. People I know never would have expected Adee to be a corporate type or any kind of Big Kahuna at the Tribune. Interesting that all of the people mentioned in the memo (above) worked in sports at some point. Maybe the new M.E. is great, but her credentials are awfully thin compared with those who exited: de Llama and Warren.

 

Adee's all right.

They need every bit of decent help they can possibly salvage.