By: E&P Staff The latest man to fill the ever-revolving publisher seat at the Los Angeles Times has promised to run the troubled paper with more self-sufficiency.
Eddy Hartenstein, 57, who was named to the position on Monday,
joked with staffers at a meet and greet that he was a "213 man, and not a 312 guy," according to one employee's account of the situation posted on L.A. Observed. Los Angeles' main area code is 213, while Chicago's is 312.
Tribune CEO Sam Zell looked to satellite TV rather than his main go-to industry, radio, to find a
person willing to run the Los Angeles Times. Hartenstein is the retired chief of DirecTV and was coaxed by Zell to come out of retirement during a meeting over dinner last month.
Hartenstein is the fourth publisher to run the paper since 2000, when Tribune acquired the then Los Angeles Times parent company Times Mirror for $8 billion. (Tribune last week wrote down the value of that deal by almost half.) He succeeds David Hiller, Jeffrey Johnson, and John Puerner, most of whom resigned the position after executives with Tribune demanded severe cuts.
Hartenstein said that Zell is giving him more slack to run the place. "[Zell] satisfied me that I was going to be able to do this the way I saw fit," reported the Los Angeles Times' Michael A. Hiltzik and Martin Zimmerman who
covered the appointment.
They went on to write that Hartenstein's "top priority" was to grow revenue rather than take an axe to the place -- "an elusive goal that has been oft-expressed by Tribune executives." Hiltzik and Zimmerman said their new boss was not specific on how he was going to grow the business.
"All the folks I know in the content business are always looking for other avenues, other venues, other combinations, other cooperative agreements," Hartenstein told the Los Angeles Times. "I'm open to any and all ideas that increase our viewership and increase the number and range of demographics we can pull in."
Hartenstein added that he doesn't "need this job" and if Zell pushed too hard for something he opposed, he would be "gone."
Staffers appreciate the fact that Hartenstein is a local guy and has a background in media. Many were impressed by the fact that Hartenstein knew their bylines, reported Hiltzik and Zimmerman.
"I would love to love this guy, but we've learned the hard way before not to invest our hearts in new leadership," Geoff Mohan, an environment editor, told his paper.
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