Wednesday Afternoon Linkage

Zell, Put L.A. Back in ‘Times’ - Boi From Troy
I’m all for a little inside baseball, after all I like politics. But my local paper, the Los Angeles Times, is reading more like an internal company newsletter these days than a big city daily. There’s new management in town, you see, and the wolf-crying reporters and editors are covering their change of fate as if the future of the nation’s second-largest metropolis is at stake.

Chandler Family Fortunes--in May W - Fishbowl LA
Kevin West explores the history of the Chandler family in the May W. He traces the family from the beginnings through the glory days right up to Otis Yeager Chandler and his online book club, which would be a great addition to the current LAT.

Tribune sale: Is it really over? - LA Biz Observed
This morning's coverage, especially in the NYT, suggests that there might be some interest in raising the bid for Tribune.

Interview With the Buyer of the L.A. Times - LAObserved
The hometown Chicago Tribune got a long interview with the buyer of the L.A. Times, KTLA and everything else in the Tribune Company's portfolio (except the Cubs.)

LA Times Deal Far From Done! - LA Cowboy
As the below Chicago Tribune story says - the break-up cost of the deal are a... puny.... twenty-five million for a multi-billion dollar deal and it's not due to close until towards the end of the year. What they do NOT further emphasize is, apparently Zell only had to match the Broad/Burkle deal and Broad in particular has said he was willing to make less money with the paper than other people would and Sam Zell figures he can make a ton of money at this price.

Running Tribune—On Empty - Business Week
So ends Tribune, the publicly traded company. So begins Tribune, the extraordinarily leveraged, privately held company. How leveraged? The just-announced deal orchestrated by investor Sam Zell leaves the company with more than $13 billion in debt. To put that in its proper perspective, Tribune's cash flow in '06—earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA—was $1.3 billion. Thus its debt exceeds last year's EBITDA by a factor of about ten.