Page One: Inside the New York Times Page #9

of running a legacy

print-newspaper business

and trying to build

an online news business.

You better hope they figure it out,

because you got like 40 years to go.

Whereas if we got

our heads chopped off,

we only have to figure out,

what, 15 more years?

Oh, f*** that.

I think I got a lot

longer to go than that.

- Really?

- My working life or my life life?

- How old are you?

- 46.

Somebody's going to tap you

on the shoulder here at 62, 63,

and say, "That was great.

Thanks a lot.

Your sheet cake's over there."

- Stelterz "Turn in your tablet."

- Turn in your tablet.

We call it...

...the iPad.

I got a glimpse of the future

this last weekend with the iPad.

It may well be, you know,

the saving of the newspaper industry.

And even if the cost is

the end of newspapers as we know it-

Well, it's better than them

going out of business altogether.

Headlamz Why are media companies

so excited about a tablet?

Well, they see it as a do-over, they see

it as this, they see it as that.

And then the question becomes,

well yeah, there's lots of people

who think Apple saved

the music business.

They didn't save it

on the music business's terms.

There's lots of people

in the music business saying

it's incredibly punishing

dealing with those guys.

Like, "Oh yeah,

they're my best friend.

See this? It's a leash."

What makes anybody think

that's going to be different

for publishers?

That's why I'm wondering if we're going

to end up screwing ourselves.

Six, five, four,

three, two, one.

164 and 232.

One per buyer.

It's just amazing

to be able to cover this,

'cause I think in five years

this could be, like,

how computers are.

But it's a little bit

scary down there, actually.

I'm walking out and people

are like "Congratulations!"

And it's like I just had a kid

or I just had twins or something.

You know, I just bought a-

I just bought a computer.

Is that a bridge to the future?

Or- oh wait, it's a gallows!

Ow!

Right there is the dream come true.

Let's see you navigate.

Mm, sweet.

That is a great reading

experience right there.

You know what it reminds me of?

- Stelterz What?

- A newspaper.

People including me are probably

silly to think, you know,

Steve Jobs is riding

over the hill like cavalry

to save the media industry.

He's driving Apple's stock price.

And we may have

business in common.

And what that Venn diagram

of interests is...

their interests versus our interests-

that's sort of where the story is.

I have a lot of great

background conversations,

but I've got to move people

onto the record.

Think of what you might

be able to say to me.

All right, man.

Thanks. Bye-bye.

You know, you could say being at

"The New York Times" is a big advantage.

You know, it kinda scares

people when you call them.

And I also think I sound

sort of weird on the phone.

And it's like-

well, do you have time to talk to me?

Great.

Um, how long did you

work at the "Trib"?

It's a big story that hasn't

really been told

in this kind

of comprehensive way-

the biggest media bankruptcy

in history,

billions and billions

of dollars just evaporated,

a lot of people lost their jobs.

The people there are still doing,

you know, excellent work,

but it's under

very difficult circumstances

from people who manifestly

do not respect what they do.

Headlamz Sam Zell,

when he came in, was somebody

with no experience

running a company like this.

No news experience.

In fact, a fair bit oi contempt

for sort of traditional

ideas of journalism.

My attitude on journalism

is very simple:

I want to make enough money

so I can afford you.

It's really that simple, okay?

You need to in effect help me

by being a journalist that focuses

on what our readers want.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I can't, you know,

you're giving me the classic

what I would call

journalistic arrogance.

You know, people inside just

sort of get dispirited

because the company's

being run by these people

who just don't share

their values.

Hopefully we get

to the point where our revenue

is so significant that we can do

puppies and Iraq, okay?

Headlamz Sam Zell wanted to put

Randy Michaels, whom he knew

from the radio business,

in charge of Tribune Company.

Michaels then came in and one

of the first things he worked on

was rewriting

the company's ethics policy

to basically say, "We're going to be

in a much more permissive atmosphere"

and you know,

"it's going to be creative

and there's going

to be things that offend you."

You know what's important to

the people who buy advertising?

I don't mean the agencies.

I mean the people who write the checks.

They want to sell widgets.

They want to move product.

They want the cash register to ring.

They want butts in seats.

Some people are like,

"We need something,

so this could be as good as any."

I mean, it's a kind of...

you know, it's a sort

of crazy Hail Mary pass.

So these guys come in,

bought the company.

This is how they behaved.

This is the result.

This company,

they drove it into bankruptcy.

Randy Michaels

and a hand-picked crew of 20 people

who he's known a long

long time have extracted

something like

$100 million in bonuses.

You could call that incentives

or you could call that looting,

depending on your perspective.

Yeah, let's just quit typing altogether

and just talk us girls for a minute.

I have certain memos about

behavior of the executives there,

and I just want to make sure

that they're true.

In this memo that was

sent to the board,

there's an incident described

where Randy Michaels

"talked openly and loudly about

other women's breasts, sex toys...

not just in closed room

with other executives but openly...

He wrote the employee handbook

so that kind of talk

wasn't against the rules."

Does that all sound right?

I was mostly doing

the bankruptcy stuff,

and then I saw those poker pictures

and I thought it seems more like

a radio station in the 1970s

than a great big media company.

Don't you think that would sell?

So I cold called

a person from Trib Co.,

and he lays them out Hat:

who they were,

what they did, etcetera.

- All on the record. My first of that.

- Yeah.

I'm doing two more

weeks of reporting,

then I'm going to take a week

to write it and show it to you.

All right.

Stelterz

Tonight at 6:
30, NBC will be driving

in the convoy

with the last combat troops

as they cross back

into Kuwait.

I don't think we know much about it.

We're not on the embed,

partly because

we think it's a PR stunt.

What do you make of the notion that

they're trying

to choreograph an exit here?

In my mind it would be easy

just to fly these trucks out.

They've been

flying trucks out for months.

But the fact that they want

to drive across the desert

and bring reporters along with them,

what does that indicate to you?

That's perfect.

So let's get started,

please, with media.

The final fighting brigade

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