The Tribune Co. has appointed Donald Liebentritt to be Chief Restructuring Officer, effective immediately, reports Tower Ticker. The company also promoted David Eldersveld to be Liebentritt’s successor as general counsel.

“As we enter the next phase of our Chapter 11 process and begin working with the mediator assigned to oversee negotiations with our creditor constituencies, Don needs to devote all his attention and energy entirely to our restructuring efforts,” Randy Michaels, Tribune Co.’s chief executive officer, said in the announcement. “He’s intimately familiar with the process and what needs to be done to achieve a restructuring plan that can win the votes of our creditors and be approved by the court.”

We have never heard of a “chief restructuring officer” but CROs have apparently been around for ages; restructuring specialist Stephen Cooper took the title when he led Enron through its bankruptcy and that seems to have catapulted the term into the national consciousness, at least among business-types.

What this means for the bankrupt-since-2008 Tribune, though, is that the company will (hopefully) finally be able to start digging itself out of the hole it’s in.