A Q&A With Kevin Roderick of LA Observed

There are a number of things about [new Tribune boss Sam Zell] that are paradoxes. One of them is that he’s preaching the need to remake he business, but he’s sort of an old-fashioned newspaper reader. He reads three or four newspapers: the New York Times the Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Tribune every day. He reads them in paper and doesn’t do a lot of online reading. He’s probably going on a combination of gut instinct and what people are telling him that that’s where the business has to go. It’s not something that’s true to him in is practice as a news consumer. That’s what makes it interesting.

The reason that I'm directing so much attention his way is because he’s the biggest media player in Los Angeles right now. If he had just simply bought the company and remained in Chicago and simply directed the company as a CEO than he wouldn’t be as interesting. He’s said he’s going to be making a lot of the decisions. He’s kind of a pseudo editor of the Los Angeles Times and all the Tribune newspapers and all the TV news stations, like KTLA. So his attitudes and opinions are of great interest to those who are interested in what happens to L.A. news coverage. And that’s who reads LA Observed, people who are involved in all walks of life, but people who are involved, and actively, in the community of Los Angeles in some way. [LAist] Sphere: Related Content