New Sheriff At The Courant

"How the fuck can someone in Tribune Tower in Chicago know how Hartford should operate."

-- Sam Zell, new owner, Hartford Courant




MEMO FROM A COURANT EDITOR TODAY:



-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 5:21 PM
To:
Subject: Sam zell

To all:

Sam Zell was in Hartford today, as you know, at the Bushnell.

There will be a story in tomorrow's paper and there should be something on the Buzz, but here is what I told someone when asked about his appearance:

Zell was in hartford today at the bushnell. have to say he was inspiring in that he is a breath of fresh air. laid down about 6 f-bombs in talking to us, one of which was this:

"How the fuck can someone in Tribune Tower in Chicago know how Hartford should operate."

He basically shit on Tribune and all its corporate mandates, top-down structure.

Not that there won't be changes and plenty of them. There will be and he said as much. And who knows what they will be, but he and Randy Michaels, his sidekick running the T-6 papers, like to take chances, that's for sure. Like to hear from people like us. Any employee can email Zell and he reads them. So different than Fitzsimons and Trib as we knew it.

You do get the sense that if he can't turn the company around, no one can. He's been successful in about everything he has done, he hates losing, he likes risks. He's a smart guy. We'll see how it all works out, but we've got the best chance we've had in years.

There will be changes. If we look ahead 3-6 months, there probably will be quite a few. He has said there will be more people working in Hartford next year than there are this year but that the "deck chairs will be rearranged." What does that exactly mean? Not sure. But from listening to him, advertising and how it operates and our web site and how it operates clearly are two focuses.

He says cutting people is not the answer. He says you need relevance and to have that, you need content. Hey, maybe it will mean there will be more people working on the web side and even in advertising at the expense of news, but I don't think so. We'll see. I do believe there is reason to be hopeful, excited, and there's definitely a new sheriff in town. And an unconventional one at that. Which also would describe his sidekick.



Other countries heard from:




AUTHOR: Phaedrus (fl. 1st cent. A.D.) QUOTATION: Whoever has even once become notorious by base fraud, even if he speaks the truth, gains no belief.

Translation, 2008; Goombonics Edition): Fughettabiuttitt. This Zell guy, troe his ass outta hee.