Sam Zell freaks out
Real estate zillionaire Sam Zell, the self-described "vulture capitalist," decided that he wanted to get into the newspaper business, having figured out (like Warren Buffett before him) that despite the protestations of the industry, newspapers still made a lot of money. So he bought the Tribune Co. last year and gained ownership of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call, and, we shall see, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel. The question was how soon Zell would succumb to the tug of the dark side and decide that 25-35 percent profit margins just weren't enough when more could be squeezed out of the business by eliminating things like reporters and more reporters. Answer: very soon.
Zell has had a bad year so far, what with another editor being fired at the Los Angeles Times for refusing to fire more reporters, and the continuing media attention to the story line of "The Wire" on HBO, which among other things portrays a dysfunctional newspaper called the Baltimore Sun, which he happens to own. So that may be why he got a bit testy the other day while addressing a staff meeting at the Orlando Sentinel. One thing Zell apparently hasn't figured out, or didn't until this video began circulating, is that newspapers, for all their external posturing, are rather genteel compared to the commercial real estate world.
He may have thought it quite normal to launch an F-bomb at someone who said something he didn't like, because that's how they talk across the negotiating table in his world. It's not like no one has ever accused him of being an uncouth, foul-mouthed jerk. Zell's having a tough time in general adapting to the idea of the help asking tough questions, and was apparently quite put out when L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez knocked on his door in Malibu to chat.
Photographer Sara Fajardo of the Sentinel challenged Zell's views on the overriding importance of raising revenues, noting that, "we're not the Pennysaver." Zell then went on a tirade about how it was her duty and that of the rest of the staff to "help me" by producing journalism "that readers want." That phrase, incidentally, is code for dumbed-down, tepid, chicken-dinner reporting that a segment of the newspaper industry has convinced itself readers want. Fajardo tells Zell that "readers want puppy dog pictures," but is that what we ought to be doing? Which launches him on another tirade about "journalistic arrogance" and how they can't have both puppy dog and Iraq pictures until revenues come up. And then, almost as an afterthought, or Freudian slip, came the F-bomb.
When a member of upper management--the uppermost of upper management in Zell's case--launches an F-bomb at a rank-and-file employee, a young woman to boot, it goes beyond uncouth to potentially actionable. Gawker.com says Zell has called Fajardo at least twice to apologize. Wonder how the Orlando Sentinel reported the same event? Just like you'd expect someone kowtowing to the new boss to report it. There's a passing mention of Fajardo's exchange with Zell, but it's shaded in such a way to make him look like the wise new daddy lecturing the silly children, not an overbearing thug. The exchange is edited completely out of the video on the Sentinel website, and there's no mention of the F-bomb, of course.
Just another great day in the newspaper business.