Sam Zell sent staffers the following e-mail this afternoon:

Partners,

We are about to release a statement on the lawsuit filed yesterday by a staffer at the LA Times and several former Times employees. I want to share it with you first, but I also want to stress that as we work to fix our company, we are all in this together.

As newspaper advertising revenues have declined severely over the last several months, we've had to take some tough steps. We're not alone, of course -- the entire publishing industry is trying to deal with the challenges posed by a tough advertising environment and an economy in turmoil. At Tribune, we're making tremendous progress-reinventing our newspapers, expanding television news, growing WGN America, and developing a new Internet platform. We're being watched and imitated.

The overwhelming majority of our employees have risen to the occasion -- they are working extremely hard, innovating as never before, trying new things, pushing the envelope. They are using their own best judgment and questioning authority when they need to -- something employees at this company rarely did in the past.

But there is a difference between questioning authority or challenging the "business as usual attitude," and maligning the company in public. That's just bad judgment and does no one any good. It's a distraction that's unnecessary.

We are partners. We need to act like it.

Sam

Official Tribune statement about the staffers' lawsuit follows:

continued...

We were curious how a newspaper would cover itself suing itself.

Jerry Hirsch wrote the piece:

Tribune management declined to comment.

Well that clears it up.

Sam Zell took over the Tribune Company last December and he's already getting sued by his employees? That kind of arrogance and short-sightedness is normally reserved for the government. It's like he's bridging the divide...

ERS has the suit in it's entirety for your viewing pleasure. It's the perfect thing for those of you with some time to kill...or a bad case of morbid curiosity like us. Wow do we need a hobby...

From Variety:

Current and former Los Angeles Times staffers have sued Sam Zell and the Tribune Co. over allegedly illegal and irresponsible actions since Zell's leveraged buyout of Tribune Co. last year.

The complaint, filed Tuesday in federal court in Los Angeles, alleges the structure of the buyout -- executed through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan - and Zell's conduct have diminished the value of Tribune Co. in order to benefit himself and fellow board members.

Developing...

Oh, we hope so! You know, for comedy's sake.

As L.A. Observed points out, it's not likely, but the Wall Street Journal makes the speculation:

Might Sam Zell double down in the Southern California newspaper market? The buzz is that Mr. Zell's Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times, is looking at the San Diego Union-Tribune, now being sold. Given the debt load hanging over his own media group, Mr. Zell is a more obvious seller. But predictable is one thing that Mr. Zell is not.

Stay tuned...

Apparently we really are the literate coast. Our sister site, FBNY received this letter of complaint by someone (a New Yorker, we're assuming) who really hates the new L.A. Times magazine:

New LA los angeles times magazine wastes great talent. The cover shoot by photographer Jeff Burton and Style Setter Lori Goldstien model Angela wearing Victor & Rolf, Dream On outfit was wrongly sent to Sunday subscribers only. They could have gained a whole new subscriber base with Soo many new natives in the city. I guess they should dream on.

You, um, tell em? In case you're wondering why we haven't weighed in much about the new pub, it's simple: It's not online. The only thing we could find online was the old publication. And we never read that either.

(We totally stole this photo from Taco.)

The Inkstained Retch today reports that Zellots are still fuming over a July BusinessWeek story that portrays Sam Zell as horribly misguided.

Gary Weitman, Senior VP of flakdom for the Tribune Co. wrote a letter to BusinessWeek to "set the record straight" ... a setting that the anonymous insider Retch takes apart point by point in its posting today.

Ah. If only the ugliness were confined to redesign prototypes.

Teamsters in the L.A. Times pressroom report some progress in their contract negotiations. Still, they're not popping the champagne corks just yet:

This progress will enable us to get closer to the economics of our contract which will be understandably more difficult to negotiate considering the industry as a whole.

TellZell is reporting that departing L.A. Times staffers were given a weird going away present: The ages and job titles of every one of the 137 employees who were given the heave-ho. The average age? 50. And there's more:

Among those reporters, more than 80% were classified as "Level III" -- generally the most experienced, best-sourced journalists.

In other words, if you're rubbing up on 50, know your beat inside and out but don't know how to use TypePad, get thee to a Learning Annex.

From Publisher's Weekly:

Inside Zell

Jeffrey Krames at Portfolio bought world rights to Ben Johnson's Sam I Am: The Inside Story of How Deal-Maven Sam Zell Is Reshaping the World's Two Largest Industries via Robert Guinsler at Sterling Lord. The book will track the life of Zell, known as “the Grave Dancer,” from law school to his recent takeover and makeover of the Tribune Company, and analyze his dealmaking and his personal and business philosophies in order to provide a glimpse into the inner world of the mogul. Pub date is fall 2009.

It'll be the perfect gift for all those journalists in your life whose schedules' just (ahem) cleared out.