The board of the Tribune Company is expected to request the resignation of Randy Michaels their Chief Executive. The individual, who spoke on the condition of not being identified, said the board had lost confidence in the ability of Mr. Michaels to lead the troubled company.
Mr. Michaels resignation would follow by days the exit of another top executive at the media company, Lee Abrams, Tribunes chief innovation officer, who resigned on Friday after sending a sexually explicit memo to the entire company.
Mr. Michaels became chief executive of Tribune in December, about two years after joining the company as an executive vice president in charge of the companys broadcasting and interactive businesses. Prior to Tribune, Mr. Michaels had a long and lucrative career in the radio industry, having worked for Jacor Communications and Clear Channel Communications. Jacor was owned and eventually sold by Sam Zell, the Chicago real estate magnate who bought Tribune in 2007.
Tribune, which publishes The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times and operates several television stations, filed for bankruptcy in December 2008, less than a year after the company was acquired by Mr. Zell, the Chicago real estate tycoon, for $8.2 billion. After that deal, the company sold Newsday to Cablevision for more than $600 million, and the Chicago Cubs to the Ricketts family, the founders of the online brokerage Ameritrade, for more than $800 million, to pay down debt.
