"Should We Ask For Directions, Yet?"

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Seven Steps to Salvation By William Powers

To fully appreciate the article that William Powers

wrote entitled "Seven Steps to Salvation"  you need 

to see it's original context as one of several

articles on the Collapse of BIG MEDIA that were 

featured in the Spring 2005 issue of The Wilson

Quarterly.

By context I refer both to the time, a full two years

before the Tribune purchase was gaining energy, and 

place in regard to the placement of the featured articles

which were introduced as quoted here: 

"Collapse is not too strong a word to describe what has 

happened to America's major news media. 

Stripped of their old economic and technological 

advantages, befuddled by the changing character of their

audiences and and beset by new competitors, they are 

reeling from the blows recent scandals have dealt to

their credibility and prestige.

Their old authority is gone, and with it, perhaps, their

ability to define for Americans a shared realm of 

information, ideas, and debate. "  TWQ page  39 ı 

Bear in mind that this was a time period when some-

one preparing due diligence profiles for a major media

acquisition should have highlighted commentary of 

this caliber. 

With this perspective in mind, compare William Powers'

media recovery program Seven Steps to Salvation with

the nine Core Values that Sam Zell introduced to the

Tribune Company in 2008. Then ask yourself, what are

Sam's games?

W.POWERS' SEVEN STEPS:

1. RELAX

    2. ENJOY YOURSELVES

        3. BE NATURAL

             4. DON'T PATRONIZE

                  5. MAKE TROUBLE

                      6. ONLY DISCONNECT

                           7. DON'T GIVE UP HOPE

TRIBUNE CORE VALUES:

Keep Your Word

Collaborate

No Surprises

Compete

Play Fair

Take Intelligent Risk

Reward Successful Performance

Question Authority

Serve Our Local Communities

As all of us participate in various roles

in the transformation of media. Maybe

we can all benefit from forgetting about

ranking, territory and stodgy rules and just

help each other enjoy our craft and the 

entertainment that we produce. 

Good luck on that. 

### T=Mak  

 

It Is Good To Be Here

Most people who stumble on this particular blog will be particularly

unimpressed. And that's O.K., because all I needed was a resting 

place to hold some of my pocket notes. Not the stuff that I need to 

file---but the kind of stuff that will be rather hard to retrieve when 

I want to share it with someone. 

I called this Blogg-trail "Sam's Game" because I wondered what 

possessed someone like Sam Zell to buy into a corporate entity like 

the Tribune Company. I originally thought that the article written 

by William Powers for the Spring 2005 issue of 

The Wilson Quarterly Magazine might have 

been the kind of thing that Sam Zell could 

have kept with his pocket notes. 

As a country cousin of one of the Tribune's past editors, I have

always had a soft spot for the Tribune and it's allied papers. 

The TV stations---eh. 

Tribune online and syndicate people have proven to be very alert 

and responsive to the contacts that I have had with them. 

During the past few years the folks in upper management 

appeared to be very insulated from contemporary media culture. 

Some how, I can not help but feel, that if The Tribune could

actually be organized as an employee run media company 

there might be a vital heart pumping there. 

The kind of heart that could provide enough 

oxygen to feed the brain enough to actually 

figure out complex issues like surviving 

bankruptcy and developing an equitable 

scheme for Tribune Tower car parking. 

Good luck on that.