Former LAT editor says Zell favored over Tribune guys*

Perhaps Sam Zell is not an ideal newspaper owner, but "If you took a vote in the L.A. Times newsroom today, they would vote Zell in and the Tribune guys out. They’re hoping and praying the deal will go through,” Dean Baquet told Connie Bruck for The New Yorker profile that sheds more light on Zell's business practices (he would be “chairman of everything, C.E.O. of nothing”), his personality and politics ("I'm an economic conservative and a social liberal").

If the Deal gets done – and there's a whole lot of folks with fingers crossed that it does — will Zell sell off some of the papers?

“I’ve had offers on every single asset in the portfolio. Chuck Schumer”—the New York senator—“calls me, because he’s hustling for some people who want to buy Newsday. Baltimore people are calling, Allentown’s calling, Florida’s calling, and, in L.A., David Geffen and Eli Broad. So all I can tell you is that for a dead industry with no future there are an awful lot of schmucks who want to take it away from me!”

* LAObserved breaks out other important stuff
Bloomberg News Photo (end of post)