“The Grave Dancer”

By Ken Silverstein

Weird billionaires aren't generally the most likeable people, so it's dangerous to take sides in yesterday's announced sale of the Tribune Co. to real estate magnate Sam Zell. On balance, though, it looks like the worst man won. Zell's bid for Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times (my old employer) among many other media properties, was accepted over an offer from Los Angeles billionaires Ronald Burkle and Eli Broad. The latter may not be perfect, but they seem preferable to Zell, who calls himself the “Grave Dancer” owing to his past practice of buying up troubled properties and squeezing a profit from them.

Zell has never before owned a media property and he clearly isn't motivated by civic duty or a deep belief in the importance of a free press. Neither are higher-ups at the Tribune Co., though they'll do their best to portray the sale as a victory for the First Amendment. Late last week, Los Angeles Times Publisher David Hiller and Editor James O'Shea held court at the newspaper's Washington bureau, and they apparently didn't inspire much confidence. From what I hear, the two men made very clear that they favored Zell's bid and dissed Broad and Burkle, suggesting at one point that they feared the Times would be tainted by association with the liberal politics of the Los Angeles billionaires. Hiller, of course, had no problem associating the newspaper with former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who he recently invited to guest-edit the newspaper's Sunday opinion section.

Meanwhile, Editor & Publisher reports that the sale of the newspaper "will make for a big payday for top management." Last October, according to E&P, Tribune directors "amended the company's bonus deferral, defined contribution and supplemental retirement plans to allow for quick lump-sum payments due top executives" if the company was sold. As a result, Chairman, President and CEO Dennis FitzSimons is set to receive about $21 million as a result of Zell's purchase of the company.

A good summary of the deal can be found in a Steve Lopez column in the Los Angeles Times.