Report: Randy Michaels Could Be Out Today

Randy Michaels

The board of directors of the Tribune Company is expected to ask Tuesday for the resignation of Randy Michaels, the controversial chief executive of the company, according to a person directly involved in the matter.  The individual, who spoke to David Carr at nytimes.com on the condition of not being identified, said the board had lost confidence in the ability of Mr. Michaels to lead the troubled company.

Mr. Michael’s resignation would follow by days the exit of another top executive at the media company, Lee Abrams, Tribune’s chief innovation officer, who resigned on Friday after sending a sexually explicit memo to the entire company.

The Chicago Tribune quotes one source who said Michaels was exploring resigning from the company and may present his decision to the board as soon as the Tuesday meeting in Chicago. The source said the board has discussed succession issues and a separation agreement for Michaels.

Mr. Michaels became chief executive of Tribune in December, about two years after joining the company as an executive vice president in charge of the company’s broadcasting and interactive businesses. Prior to Tribune, Mr. Michaels had a long and lucrative career in the radio industry, having worked for Jacor Communications and Clear Channel Communications. Jacor was owned and eventually sold by Sam Zell, the Chicago real estate magnate who bought Tribune in 2007.

Trib Tower Poker

Clear Channel Communications acquired Jacor in 1999, and Mr. Michaels became Clear Channel’s division president and later, chief executive; he was pushed out in 2002, in part because of concerns over lawsuits and workplace issues.

Under Michaels, Tribune, a formerly conservative media company, became known for rugged, profane talk from executives, long, incomprehensible memos from management, and an atmosphere that was depicted in widely published photos of a poker party in the executive offices of Tribune Towers.

Robert Feder at at blogs.vocalo.org writes, the end of Michaels’ reign, if true, could come just as Tribune Co. exits bankruptcy after nearly two years. A tentative deal with a group of lenders reportedly was reached last week. “When and if Tribune emerges from bankruptcy, it will apparently proceed with new management,” the New York Times reported. “Mr. Michaels, who came to the company with a broad mandate for change, alienated many of the company’s employees and some of its advertisers with a nontraditional approach with many tactics borrowed from radio.”

The timing and extent of the New York Times’ expose sent shockwaves through the company, which includes the Chicago Tribune, WGN America, WGN-Channel 9, WGN-AM (720), and other major newspapers and television stations across the country.

Lee Abrams

Just last Friday, Michaels announced the resignation of Lee Abrams as chief innovation officer after Abrams had written a companywide memo with links to an offensive video.  Some saw the move an effort by Michaels to make Abrams a scapegoat and buy himself more time with the board.

According to Feder, nowhere was Michaels’ heavy hand more apparent than at Tribune’s one and only radio station, WGN-AM, where he installed longtime crony Kevin Metheny as program director and continued to meddle in everything from personnel matters to words that newscasters were forbidden to utter on the air.

Read more here.