Posted by Community on November 05, 2010 at 12:20:18:
October 31, 2010
Randy Michaels tells Journal that Tribune Co. was 'inclusive, tolerant, fun' under him
Randy Michaels, in his first interview since his Oct. 22 resignation as chief executive of Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co. amid allegations of crass behavior and fostering a "frat house" atmosphere, said the company's environment on his watch "was inclusive, tolerant, fun, creative and sometimes irreverent, but with a purpose."
Michaels told the Wall Street Journal that Tribune Co.'s board didn't ask him to leave and he didn't plead to keep his job but instead gave the directors various options at a meeting that preceded his departure by three days. Upon his resignation, the board replaced him with a four-member Executive Council.
"The fact is I decided to resign because I thought this had become an issue that was distracting, that my ability to continue to lead the company was in serious question," Michaels told the Journal in a story posted online Sunday.
Michaels defended the company's performance under him and indicated his exit was greased by a "careless" and "indefensible" companywide Oct. 11 e-mail from Lee Abrams, Tribune Co.'s chief innovation officer, less than a week after a New York Times article critical of Tribune Co.'s corporate culture and Michaels' role in it. Even before the Times story was posted online, Michaels sought to discredit the report and urged employees to ignore it.
Abrams, who resigned a week before Michaels, has said since that he never intended to offend anyone and left of his own volition because he believed had become too much of a distraction. But Abrams' departure obviously did not quell the controversy at the Chicago-based media concern that is trying to emerge from bankruptcy protection, having operated under Chapter 11 protection since December 2008.
"It's very difficult at the end of the day (for Tribune Co.'s directors) to replace management that is getting the job done," Michaels told the Journal. "They had nothing but liability."
Michaels indicated to the newspaper that he will likely take some time off, perhaps go to Europe, before choosing his next move.
"I may go buy some media, I may go run some media, I don't know," Michaels said. "My phone's been ringing. There are a lot of people who look past noise and emotions and look at results."
As expected, disgruntled Tribune Co. bankruptcy creditors late Friday filed three new restructuring plans to compete with one filed a week earlier by the company and the biggest senior creditors in the case: Oaktree Capital Management, Angelo, Gordon & Co. and a group of senior lenders led by JPMorgan Chase.