Sam Zell Speaks His Mind

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You have said that you see Tribune becoming more of a broadcasting company with fewer newspapers.

I think Tribune, in terms of revenue, is about two-thirds newspapers and one-third broadcasting. Our goal would probably be to make it much more 50/50. You can make it 50/50 by selling newspapers. You can also make it 50/50 by making broadcasting a lot more valuable and a much bigger earner.

Which method do you foresee taking?

Longer term, it's very hard to see growth in the newspaper business.

What do you think of Tribune's newspapers?

I think they are generally decent papers. Some of them are much better than others. And I believe they all can be better.

Are there any pieces of Tribune that you feel you need to keep or Tribune loses its essence?

I've never sat down and said I won't do this, I will do this. It's just not the way we think about it. There are a lot of pieces that are holy grails. I can't imagine us ever selling the Chicago Tribune.

Is anyone interested in the Los Angeles Times?

As far as I know, there have always been people interested in the L.A. Times. Even now. I could sell all of the newspapers if I wanted to. If you remember, all the savants suggested we would get $300 million for Newsday. They were wrong. I think they will be wrong again, and again, and again, and again, and again.

Some bankers and analysts estimate you have about $1 billion of real estate assets as well.

I haven't done that kind of analysis. Your number sounds light. It could be significantly more.

What's your No. 1 revenue-growing opportunity going forward?

I think there's little doubt that percentage-wise the Internet will be a bigger part of our future. We also believe WGN America, our superstation, represents a massively underused asset. There are only two superstations in the country: TBS and WGN. TBS has operating cash flow that is five times what WGN has. It's unjustifiable. That represents an enormous amount of future growth for this company.

How are you viewing the criticisms of you on the Internet?

No. 1, I don't go on the Internet. So that makes it easy. I don't go to YouTube. I don't go to these blogs. No. 2, I knew going in that this was a monstrous job. I knew that I needed to act as both the grenade thrower and the bomb deflector if we were going to get from here to there. I also had to decide that I would take the flak that came with it. I'm still sitting here.

When you closed this deal, you described it as the deal from hell. Is it still the deal from hell?

Of course, it's the deal from hell. And it will continue to be the deal from hell until we turn it around.

Back in high school, you sold Playboy magazines to classmates, is that right?

You could call that my first media experience. It was much more profitable than this one, and a much higher and faster return on investment.