A bunch of Luddites acting like winos passing around a bottle.
‘Chicago Tribune’ D.C. Bureau Chief Welcomes Zell “Challenge”
By Joe Strupp
Published: February 27, 2008 12:40 PM ET
NEW YORK Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau Chief Michael Tackett welcomed new Tribune Company Chief Sam Zell’s challenge to reorganize the D.C. bureau and said his staff is “locked, loaded and ready to change.”
But Tackett, a veteran D.C. journalist and bureau chief since 2004, also said he would fight to keep each of his 16 bureau staffers. “I am going to defend every position that I have on their merits as productive, flexible, adaptive people who want to compete and win.”
Tackett’s views followed Tuesday’s visit by Zell and Tribune Vice President Randy Michaels to the Tribune D.C. bureau, which houses the Washington bureaus of each Tribune newspaper. During that meeting, Zell made clear he did not like the current staffing levels or the separate coverage approach from each paper.
“He clearly sees bloat and status quo. He wants change,” Tackett said about the visit, which included a clear request by Zell for a new operational plan for the bureau. “He said, ‘you come up with a plan to fix things or I will fix it for you.’ I look at that as an opportunity. It is time to take it to the next level.”
Tackett said bureau staffers are working on a reorganization plan that they will offer to Tribune executives, but had no specifics or timing yet.
“Let’s say I am not going to waste a lot of time,” he added. “It is a blaring grasp of the obvious what he wants.” Tackett said it is not clear if each Tribune D.C. bureau would formulate its own proposals or work together for a united plan: “That is still being decided, this is all fairly fresh.”
Frank James, a Chicago Tribune D.C. reporter since 1995 and lead contributor to “The Swamp,” the bureau’s popular blog, called Zell’s views, “a hard reality.”
“It is like learning you have cancer,” James explained. “What are you going to do about it? Give up or figure out how to deal with it?” He said most staffers are taking the approach of offering a solution. “They came in and gave us a dose of the new reality,” he added. “The new reality is that revenues are eroding faster than anyone had forecast.”
Tackett said he appreciated the positive comments from Zell and Michaels about “The Swamp,” which launched in January 2006 and has seen a 40% page view increase since December 2007, with expectations for 2 million page views for February, its largest ever.
Tackett said he proposed ideas for a possible Swamp television show and a likely expansion of the blog to Zell and Michaels. “They said, ‘we think The Swamp is a great feature’,” Tackett said. “That is good stuff; that is about what we can do.”
Other Tribune Company D.C. bureau staffers were either unreachable or unwilling to comment Wednesday morning. Tackett said the impact of Zell’s views “was pretty dramatic, but no one’s knees are knocking.”
Still Tackett made clear that his bureau understands the need to change and is willing to work toward a new approach. “It is a new day and we are kidding ourselves if we don’t think the business is in a fundamentally challenging time,” he stressed. “The time for standing on ceremony is over.”
Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is a senior editor at E&P.
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