Journalists are overhead? According to Sam Zell they are.
April 10th, 2008 | by Dusty |NPR has a recording of one of the speeches of the new owner of The Tribune Company, Sam Zell, which owns among other things: Newsweek, the Baltimore Sun and the LA Times. He was speaking to staff comprised of editors and journalists. Sam Zell is a Billionaire but evidently a tight-fisted, foul-mouthed one according to many sources. I can handle the language..but to call editors and journalists that cover DC overhead? Nope.. Some of the ‘good’ parts:
“This is the first unit of Tribune that I’ve talked to that doesn’t generate any revenue. So all of you are overhead,” Zell said during the late February meeting with editors and reporters for the company’s Washington bureau.
“Three guys in a garage create YouTube, and we’ve got 800 people in Chicago who don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground!” he said at the February meeting. “You chronicle what we’ve done in 60 days, and I promise you the next 60 days will be even more tumultuous.”
Zell bought The Tribune Co. by “borrowing billions against the future retirement funds of its employees. He effectively paid $315 million, and now Tribune is more than $12 billion in debt.”
He browbeats them if they dare to question him. Check out the video below where he ‘dresses down’ an Orlando Sentinel journalist at the end of his diatribe with a hearty ‘fuck you’.