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Tribune Co gets new chief

Real estate billionaire Sam Zell responds to a question on his purchase of the Tribune Company during a news conference at the Tribune Tower in Chicago on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

On Thursday, after completing an US$8.2 billion deal that turned the Tribune Co into a privately held operation, Samuel Zell made himself chief executive, announced a new set of directors and managers, and declared that the troubled company would look to raise revenue more than cut spending.

At a press conference in Chicago, Zell, who has made billions in real estate, cheerfully upheld his reputation as a blunt, funny and contrary businessman.

He disparaged the conventional wisdom that the newspaper industry -- and the Tribune Co in particular -- was suffering through a long, unavoidable contraction, and repeatedly stated that Tribune could increase its revenues.

"I'm sick and tired of listening to everybody talk about and commiserate about the end of newspapers," he said. "They ain't ended. And they're not going to be."

He said of Tribune: "I think it's a very low-risk investment, but this wouldn't be the first time that my opinion diverged from everybody else's."

The transaction makes Tribune a nonprofit organization owned entirely by an employee stock ownership plan, but Zell, who invested US$315 million in the deal, has the right to buy up to 40 percent of it in the future. Tribune owns The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, The Baltimore Sun and 23 television stations, among other properties.

The company added five members to its board on Thursday, replacing four departing directors. Three others remain, including Zell, the new chairman. Most of the newcomers have long experience in communications, but not in Tribune's core industries of television and newspapers.

"This is not a board where we have to have people on it who are going to impress Wall Street," Zell said. "They tend to be non-conventional thinkers."

One new director is Brian Greenspun, who heads his family's investment company, the Greenspun Corp, which made an unspecified investment in Tribune. The corporation owns several publications, including The Las Vegas Sun, where Greenspun is the editor.
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