Zell said the money for the new plan would help compensate workers for the annual profit-sharing contribution that Tribune had made in past years to their pension accounts. Zell said Tribune's former executives decided to eliminate the profit-sharing contribution for 2007 but left it to him to convey the bad news.
Zell, in conjunction with an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, led the $8.2-billion buyout of Tribune that was completed in December.
Since Zell's bid for the company was accepted last April, advertising revenues for newspapers and broadcasters across the country have fallen sharply because of a combination of a severe real-estate slump, fears of a possible recession and stiff competition for ads from Internet-based rivals.
Zell said Tuesday that through the third quarter of 2007, Tribune's cash flow had declined by 12% from a year earlier. Most observers inside and outside the company believe the situation has deteriorated since then.
--
thomas.mulligan
@latimes.com
