Chief Administrative Officer Gerry Spector indicated yesterday in a memo about retirement plan changes that the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) was going to be killed. Ed Padgett has posted the memo on his Los Angeles Times pressmen blog, and we found the following excerpt especially interesting:

When we emerge from bankruptcy, we expect that the shares of Tribune stock held by the ESOP will be extinguished and the plan terminated. Duff & Phelps, a nationally recognized appraisal firm, recently determined that as of December 31, 2008, the value of a share of Tribune Company stock held by the ESOP was $0. Nonetheless, in keeping with the plan provisions, the company has made the initial allocation of shares to the accounts of eligible employees. You will receive a letter in a few weeks reflecting this valuation and informing you of the number of shares you were allocated, as required by the plan.

Wonder how much it costs the company to send notices to all those employees about exactly how shares of ZERO they own?