Michaels Resigns, Trib Names Four To Lead

Having lost the support of many employees, his board and the creditors who will soon take over the media company, Tribune Co. Chief Executive Randy Michaels resigned Friday, as the company's board sought to end one of the most tumultuous episodes in the history of the 163-year-old Chicago institution, which is now in bankruptcy.

The Chicago Tribune reports Michaels will be replaced by a four-member office called an Executive Council, which will be charged with stabilizing the company while it struggles to exit Bankruptcy Court after almost two years of fractious, stop-and-start negotiations with creditors.

The new caretakers are: Eddy Hartenstein, chief executive and publisher of the Los Angeles Times Media Group; Tony Hunter, president and publisher of the Chicago Tribune Media Group; Nils Larsen, Tribune Co. chief investment officer; and Don Liebentritt, who is in charge of the company's Chapter 11 restructuring.

Tribune owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, KTLA-TV Channel 5 and other media properties.

Michaels' departure followed weeks of escalating allegations that he and his "friends and family" — a cadre of former colleagues and associates from the radio industry — had tarnished the company with boorish, sexist behavior and a general atmosphere of juvenile unprofessionalism in the corporate suite.

Since he was installed in 2007 by Tribune Chairman Sam Zell, Michaels has maintained that his raucous, unconventional style was intended to foster creativity at a company desperate for new ideas.

But in the end, sources say, the former on-air radio personality was undone by a growing perception among once-supportive Tribune board members that his tactics were more irresponsible than effective. His behavior, they concluded, not only publicly embarrassed the company but exposed the board to potentially damaging charges that directors were standing by while management ran amok.

One question not immediately answered on Friday is what will happen to Michaels' recruits still at the company, many of whom are scattered throughout the broadcasting, Interactive and corporate divisions in important positions. When asked Friday whether he would stay at the company, Marc Chase, president of Tribune Interactive and a close ally of Michaels, said that he now reports to Hunter and that "I have no plans to leave." When asked whether Hunter had confirmed his status, he referred a reporter to Hunter, who was unavailable for comment.

Instead of being a tool of motivation, Michaels' "shock and awe" campaign was often perceived as being offensive and stifling by those who didn't get the joke. And when allegations of improper sexualized comments came to light, it appeared the loose employee handbook condoned bad behavior more than good judgment.

As Denise Brown, a former member of the company's corporate communications team told the Chicago Tribune this week, "if you spoke up you were portrayed as a sissy."

Michaels and his team, many of whom worked together at Jacor Communications and Clear Channel Communications, also stood as a group apart from the company they were attempting to transform.
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