To Zell and Back

Sam Zell is back in the news about newspapers. Businessweek's article by Thornton, Arndt and Grover looks at Zell as a self styled "grave dancer" and says he should have seen the newspaper industry was in trouble when he bought the Tribune. It gives an interesting description of the anatomy of the deal Zell engineered to buy the company.

Like most articles about the Tribune's troubles, the focus is on Zell. Jeff Jarvis on the other hand takes a very different view of the situation blaming the staff at Zell's papers for getting them to where they are today.

It's hard to imagine any old media publication being broad enough to contain two such varied opinions. Which backs up Crosbie's idea that it's time of old media producers to realize that they are not an end product any more. They are just a part of a tapestry of news consumption that users stitch together every day, each in his own way.