Chicago-based Tribune Co. said Monday it is establishing a Texas subsidiary that will consolidate the media conglomerate’s back-office operations such as financial responsibilities and systems administration. The company said it anticipates the move, anticipated in recent weeks as job openings were posted on various employment Web sites, “will save Tribune tens of millions annually.”
Tribune Co.
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Aug. 13, 2010 at 4:20 p.m.
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Filed under: Bankruptcy, Chicago executives, Magazines, Media, Newspapers, Radio, TV Zell seeks to be repaid before others in Tribune bankruptcy
Sam Zell, who took Tribune Co. private in a 2007 leveraged buyout, says he wants his claims in the media company’s bankruptcy to be paid before those of any lower-priority creditors. Zell put $315 million of his own money into the $8 billion deal. The company filed for Chapter 11 last year.
Demands by the lower-priority creditors have gotten louder since a bankruptcy examiner’s report last week raised questions about the LBO.
TV critic leaves Tribune for AOL Television
Maureen Ryan, a 13-year veteran of the Chicago Tribune and its television critic, announced Friday that she has left the newspaper to join AOL Television as its TV critic.
Before joining the Tribune, she worked for the magazines Chicago Enterprise and Cinescape, and she freelanced for Crain’s Chicago Business, RollingStone.com, the Chicago Reader, NewCity, Request and other publications.
More experienced workers applying for internships
The good news on internships this fall is 27 percent of companies plan to hire interns to help them get through the rest of 2010. The bad news, at least for entry level workers, is 23 percent of companies say they’re seeing more applications for those jobs from experienced workers with more than a decade or experience and mature workers over the age of 50. Get the full story »
Aug. 10, 2010 at 5:38 p.m.
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Filed under: Bankruptcy, Chicago executives, Fraud, Litigation, Media, Retirement Judge: Zell can’t be made to pay for pension losses
A U.S. District Judge in Chicago ruled Monday that Sam Zell can’t be made to pay for the company’s retirement fund losses because Tribune isn’t directly involved in the lawsuit. Zell was sued by workers who claimed that the billionaire caused the company’s employee stock ownership plan to lose value.
Tribune judge extends hearings, unseals report
Tribune Co.’s attempts to exit bankruptcy court will be delayed at least until October, but could extend even beyond that as the company and its creditors dive into a new round of negotiations aimed at finally settling the 20-month-old Chapter 11 case.
The delay is an acknowledgment that an examiner’s report about the propriety of the company’s 2007 leveraged buyout has upset a previous settlement in the case and forced the company to redouble efforts to win the approval from a range of dissident creditors. Get the full story »
Investment bank rejected Tribune deal in 2007
An investment bank declined to give Tribune Co. a clean bill of financial health in 2007 that would have cleared the way for Sam Zell’s $8.2 billion leveraged buyout of the media conglomerate, people familiar with the matter said.
Houlihan Lokey, a Los Angeles-based bank, rejected overtures from Tribune around March 2007 to provide what is known as a “solvency opinion” that would label Zell’s takeover financially sound, these people said. Houlihan believed the deal would saddle the newspaper-and-television company with too much debt, they said. Get the full story »
Tribune judge allows some access to report
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey signed an order providing certain key parties access to the full examiner’s report in the Tribune Co. bankruptcy case so they can evaluate its momentous conclusions before an Aug. 6 voting deadline.
He also indicated he might move the deadline out by a few days, but said he was determined not to disrupt the schedule for confirmation hearings on the Tribune Co. plan which are slated to begin Aug. 30.
Carey stopped short of ordering full public disclosure of the report. But he indicated he would prefer to make it public if parties in the case can resolve a series of confidentiality disputes raised by several big lenders to Tribune Co.’s ill-fated 2007 leveraged buyout, which was led by Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell. Get the full story »
Tribune Co. warns of more bankruptcy delays
Tribune Co. warned Monday that its nearly 20-month-old bankruptcy proceeding could be delayed again over a brewing dispute involving the release of a court-appointed examiner’s report in the case.
The report, which is being prepared by Los Angeles lawyer Kenneth Klee, is due before midnight Monday. But in a filing Friday, Klee said wrangling with various parties over the confidentiality of documents attached to his report would force him to submit a heavily redacted version, pending a judge’s ruling on the issue. Get the full story »
Under pressure, Tribune cuts back on bonuses
Under pressure from its creditors and unions, bankrupt Tribune Co. agreed to cut back on the bonuses it would pay under its proposed 2010 management incentive plan.
The move comes as Chicago-based Tribune Co. seeks to win approval from creditors for a reorganization plan that would allow it to exit a bankruptcy case that has dragged on for almost 20 months. Get the full story »
‘WGN Morning News’ to start a half hour earlier
Ratcheting up the trend across the country and in Chicago of expanded morning news shows, “WGN Morning News” said it will start at 4:30 a.m., a half hour earlier, beginning Aug. 16. It’s the first time in six years WGN Morning News has been expanded. Locally, WMAQ, also known as NBC 5, has already had a morning news program at 4:30 a.m. Get the full story »
LBO issues to be part of Tribune Ch. 11 hearing
The judge in the Tribune Co.’s bankruptcy said Wednesday that there’s no way to avoid arguments about the media conglomerate’s 2007 leveraged buyout at a hearing on whether to confirm its reorganization plan.
But Judge Kevin Carey indicated that he will not hold a full-blown trial on buyout-related claims at the confirmation hearing, set to begin Aug. 30. Get the full story »
WGN moving John Williams to afternoons
Midday host John Williams is moving yet again on the WGN-AM 720 schedule, this time to early afternoons, where he will be reunited with on-air partner and newsman Steve Bertrand.
The tweak to the schedule, the latest change of several at Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.’s radio station, calls for Williams to slide into the 12:30 p.m.-to-3 p.m. weekday shift, with the Aug. 9 arrival of Cincinnati import Mike McConnell in the 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Tribune bankruptcy examiner gets more time
The judge in the Tribune Co. bankruptcy case has given an independent examiner more time to probe the media company’s 2007 leveraged buyout. The judge gave the examiner two more weeks, until July 26, to submit his report, and moved the deadline for creditors to vote on Tribune’s reorganization plan to Aug. 6.
Chicago Tribune Media Group promotes two execs
The Chicago Tribune Media Group, the Tribune Co. division that includes the Chicago Tribune, on Wednesday announced the promotion of newsroom executives Joycelyn Winnecke and Jane Hirt.
Chicago Tribune Editor Gerould Kern, a senior vice president, said in a memo to staff that Associate Editor Winnecke and Managing Editor Hirt each are adding the title of vice president after 22 months in their current posts in recognition of “their exceptional accomplishments and growing responsibility for the company.” Get the full story »
