Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/tribune-co-fraught-with-debt-leadership-loss Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript As the Tribune Co. searches for ways to sustain its readership, two of its major papers, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, suffered heavy losses in leadership. A columnist and a professor discuss the latest blows to the company and changes in the media landscape. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JEFFREY BROWN: The troubled newspaper industry took two more casualties yesterday, when Ann Marie Lipinski, editor of the Chicago Tribune, and David Hiller, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, resigned their positions. The common denominator: their papers are both owned by the Tribune Company, an industry leader that was bought last December by real estate magnate Sam Zell in an $8.2 billion deal that took the company private, but left it saddled with debt.Last month, Zell announced a major round of budget cuts, including a plan for fewer news pages and staff layoffs. Recently, the L.A. Times announced it would cut another 150 newsroom jobs, and the Chicago Tribune said it would cut 80.We take a look at what's going on now with Esther Thorson, associate dean of the University of Missouri's School of Journalism, and Jon Fine, media columnist for BusinessWeek magazine.Well, Jon Fine, there are troubles galore for this industry, but start with the Tribune Company itself. Explain its particular problems right now.JON FINE, BusinessWeek magazine: Well, the Tribune's particular problems are that real estate magnate Sam Zell bought the company for $8.2 billion. That deal left the company with $13 billion in debt, which means, in plain terms, you have an enormous mortgage payment to make every year. I think it's $1 billion this year.The profits, the total profits of Tribune last year were $1 billion, I think $1.1 billion. Not much of a cushion there. Profits are dropping and revenues are dropping.That said, what's affecting Tribune is not at all different from what's affecting every other major market newspaper and newspaper company. You're seeing double-digit revenue falloffs. You're seeing layoffs on a truly massive scale. You're seeing 15 percent, 20 percent, 25 percent of newsrooms being whacked.This is not a happy time, but it's not just that Sam Zell is too deep in debt or that he paid too much for Tribune. It's that this is what is happening to newspapers. The world is shrinking. No one's figured out a way around that.