Zell pledges to change Tribune's corporate culture ...

Just as he has with his acquisitions in other industries.

"Just by being private, the culture will change. We won't be forced to make decisions that are 90 days in relevance," Zell told a group of newspaper executives at the Inland Press Association's annual meeting in Chicago this afternoon. (The group is a newspaper trade group that represents about 1,200 papers.) He sees Tribune as a very good long-term investment and is in for the long haul with no exit strategy.

Newspaper management, in general, he said, was too complacent about the changes going on around them. "I believe there was a fellow named Nero who fiddled while Rome burned," he said.

(end of post)