Tribtanic Meets Iceberg

In the Century just past, while the Chandler family was building the Los Angeles Times into one of America's finest newspapers, the Tribune Corporation was turning the Chicago Tribune into the World's Greediest Newspaper, the Walmart of American journalism. By owning newspapers, television stations, radio stations, dot-coms, a baseball team, you name it, in the same market, the Tribune Corp. figured it could cross-promote itself to success, quality be damned. Now, the Chandler family is out to reform the Tribune.

They're not doing it for the reasons we would like, such as ethics, responsibility, equality, principles and stuff, they're just doing it because they think the Tribune's management is inept. But at least they're doing it.

The Chandler Trust acquired a 12 percent interest in the Tribune Corp. when the latter swallowed the LA Times in 2000. Now the Chandlers hope to bust the Tribune Corporation apart, according to a letter sent to Tribune directors this week:

As you know, the basic strategic premise of the Tribune/Times Mirror merger was that the cross–ownership of multiple premium major media properties in the nation’s three largest media outlets would provide a platform to produce above-industry performance for both its newspaper and broadcast assets and for strong growth in interactive and other media opportunities. This strategy has failed and the regulatory change anticipated at the time of the merger to make legal the permanent cross-ownership of certain of key assets has not occurred. Over the past two years, Tribune has significantly underperformed industry averages and there is scant evidence to suggest the next two years will be any different. Clearly, it is time for prompt, comprehensive action.

The Chandlers want the Tribune Corp. to break apart its newspaper and television properties and dispose of some or all of its properties. They've also called for a special committee to take over management of the firm. We volunteer to serve. Certainly there should be a seat at the table for Sox fans. No one knows the backhand of Walmart journalism better than we do.