Zell Makes Work Hell for Tribune Staffers
Sam Zell gets shit done. Quickly.
His new employees need to deal with it, and him:
Billionaire Sam Zell is traveling the U.S. using pep talks laced with profanity to exhort Tribune Co.’s 19,000 employees to be more creative or risk seeing their jobs disappear.
The real estate mogul turned chairman of Chicago-based Tribune has used the f-word and called himself the human equivalent of Viagra to address what ails one of the company’s newspapers, the 126-year-old Los Angeles Times. ``He doesn’t need to swear to get our attention,’’ said Julie Cart, a 25-year metro reporter at the Los Angeles Times. ``We see how newsrooms are shrinking. Zell makes a lot of noise but he hasn’t articulated the new model other than saying we’re doing it wrong.’’
In a Jan. 31 meeting at the Orlando Sentinel, a female photographer asked whether Tribune’s newspapers risked being dumbed-down. Zell replied and, as the audience was applauding, added ``f--- you.’’ Zell later tried to reach the photographer to apologize, said Sentinel spokeswoman Ashley Allen.
On Feb. 7, he told Los Angeles Times employees that Internet pornography could be viewed at work provided it didn’t hamper productivity.
``Let me know if you find any good sites,’’ he said. Bloomberg
I love you Sam Zell. But not everyone does.
Some of Zell’s employees object to the language he uses and complain that he hasn’t clearly stated what Tribune’s new strategy should be.
Strategy? It is called profits.
Do the folks at Dow Jones & Co.realize how lucky they are?
Zell Invokes Viagra, F-Word Urging Creativity, Speed at Tribune
Bloomberg
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