It’s relatively easy (especially when dealing with a large conglomerate like The Tribune Company) to find information for its investors (or prospective investors) online. A quick glance at this link and their impressive portfolio is viewable:
Yet, as they say, timing is everything; and that seems to be particularly true in regards to this week’s blog. Issues have been percolating of late in regards to the Tribune Company as they have been in the throes of bankruptcy (for quite some time, actually...though it seems to be getting worse of late). This sort of predicament can prove to be bad press for any company or organization, but what happens when the company IS the press?
Last Saturday, the Los Angeles Times (do I still need to mention that they are owned by The Tribune Company?) ran an article going into detail of some of the ugliness of Tribune’s bankruptcy case. In particular, they touched upon how some investors and shareholders may in fact have to return money. See for yourself: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/26/business/la-fi-tribune-stockholders-20111126
And while this is more of a matter of the press running a story that they feel needs to be told, there is that inevitable feeling of the Los Angeles Times biting the hand that feeds them.
A visit to www.Tribune.com, however, makes everything look as though it is business as usual, until you scroll to the bottom of the homepage. First, one would need to look through other information that is deemed more important (or perhaps less embarrassing) like San Diego’s Fox 5 television program “San Diego’s Most Wanted”, or a lovely (and timely!) piece on how the WPIX-11 Yule Log will celebrate its 45th anniversary this Christmas (That sounds familiar…Didn’t I blog about that over a month ago?!).
Once you have read through all of that “breaking news”, there’s a little bit of information regarding the Tribune Company’s current financial crisis. And while I can’t necessarily blame them for not wanting to put such a large emphasis on their bankruptcy woes, I would imagine that some worried and paranoid investors and Tribune employees would be frustrated having to first sort through information regarding crime on the San Diego streets and a yule log that burns for 24 hours while Perry Como Christmas carols play, just to get through information about what is an ugly predicament. Even the way the financial crisis is addressed (“Roundup of Recent Coverage of Our Chapter 11 Process”) sounds almost a little too lighthearted. I particularly enjoyed the colorful photo to the right of the aforementioned “roundup”, which advertises the upcoming Los Angeles Times Travel Show. The caption reads “Getting away never got so good”, and I’d imagine that many Tribune investors would love to get away right about now (provided they aren’t completely broke).
This is perhaps an example of when an internal blog could be effectively utilized. I would think that a blog (or any sort of information directly targeting investors) would be apropos in the midst of a crisis of this sort. Something that would of course require a password and not be accessible to the general public would be key in this situation. Perhaps something like that does exist and it’s a simple matter of the average person not being able to stumble upon it.
David spoke at great length in class last Tuesday about the importance of communication during a crisis situation, using examples of major corporations who found themselves in messy situations (BP, Enron, etc.), or celebrities who had committed a much-publicized faux pas (Tom Cruise jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch). An important fact that was stressed is that in the midst of a crisis, the situation should be addressed appropriately and not ignored. And while I don’t feel that the Tribune Company is by any means ignoring their current bankruptcy crisis, I do feel they could be handling it in a better, more serious manner for their investors and employees.
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