John S. Carroll: Zell “Idiot in Terms of Journalism”

Aw! We just love when someone besides us calls Sam Zell an idiot.

Of course, he could have us killed for his pocket change…he is a billionaire. Of course he’s also too cheap to pay for his own freaking lawyer while beat reporters are getting laid off. So maybe we’ll live to insult another day!

John S. Carroll was editor of the Los Angeles Times from 2000 to 2005 before that he was at the The Baltimore Sun. He talked with Executive Editor Tom Linthicum from the Maryland Daily Record.

From the Daily Record:

“Zell may be a genius in other lines of work, but he is an idiot in terms of journalism,” Carroll said.

Waller, who retired from The Sun in 2003, also had choice words for Tribune’s business practices.

“Tribune management confuses innovation with idiocy,” he said. “I could wear my underwear over my trousers and Tribune would think that’s innovation. Everybody else would think I was wacko.”

Waller is not optimistic about the future of some newspaper companies, especially Tribune.

“If this ownership continues its ways, it will be forced to liquidate,” he said.

But he is not willing to give up on the industry overall.

“The real truth is that about 80 percent of the daily newspapers in this country are making money, and most of the real problems are in the big city papers,” he said. “That’s not a dying industry.

“Some of the big papers are going to die because they are being mismanaged, but a lot of newspapers will be fine.”

Via Romenesko

Previously on FBLA: Hey, Stop Suing Yourself…

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