Undoing Earns Place In Media History

Randy Michaels, who resigned Friday as chief executive of McCormick's old Tribune Co., made a lot of noise about upending the 163-year-old Chicago-based company's culture, but he was either unable to escape that 21st century reality or, at the very least, adapt to it.

Phil Rosenthal, who covers Media at chicagotribune.com writes:

Someone, somewhere, is always watching. Think of all we know about current and former media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch, Leslie Moonves, Ted Turner and Sumner Redstone. Think of all the coverage and criticism devoted to Jeff Zucker, David Westin and Jon Klein. Think of the movie playing in theaters based on what Aaron Sorkin thinks he knows about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Those who work in the media can justify the attention they pay to others in the media business, because even those who believe the industry is in decline see its power rivaling or perhaps superseding that of government.

One need only pick up the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times or any of the other company newspapers, sit through the TV newscasts on WGN-Ch. 9 or its other stations or listen to the talk shows on News 720 WGN-AM, to know corporate excesses and abuses from Wall Street to Silicon Valley are in everyone's cross hairs.

But Michaels overplayed his poker hand, provoking others to up the ante as he lost the support of many employees, his board and the creditors that will soon take over the media company, which has been operating under Chapter 11 protection for 22 months. Replacing the CEO will be a four-person Executive Council, including the publishers of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. The council will be charged with stabilizing the company while it works to emerge from bankruptcy.

It mattered not that Tribune Co.'s creditors have praised Michaels and his team for stabilizing the financials of the company despite a recession and tectonic shifts in the media business. Michaels had become a distraction deemed unnecessary.

Read more here.

Also Read:

Randy Michaels First Disaster In Chicago? It Was "Hell".  (Robert Feder)