Poor Tribune, Standard & Poor’s is removing TRB stock from its S&P 500 Index tomorrow after close. The company’s deepening debt is already listed as junk status.
Chief Executive Dennis J. FitzSimons is trying to cash the fattest employee check before the end of the year for himself. He wants to be compensated $40 million to NOT run the company any longer.
‘Tribune Millionaries’ used to be more common. Back in the days when I worked for that company - I used to participate in every employee program I could to get my hands on the issue. It was always on the rise, splitting every few years and so I would buy the stock at the employee discount, waited patiently to be ‘vested’ (which required five years of service) in the ESOP and banked most of my meager 401(k) contributions in that good old TRB. Who didn’t? We all figured it was our little piggy bank - our reward for other sacrifices we made to practice our craft in the building with the flying buttresses.
Dennis may be the last ‘Tribune Millionaire’ to walk out the door this month but 15 years ago - there were a lot more of them leaving the company after 25 years with seven figure payouts from the public trading of TRB. These were the working class people, machinists, photographers, pre-press operators, ad layout managers and the like. These were the real Chicagoans who labored to put the value into the stock. Bob Fila and I used to talk about those lucky cats for years - he knew them all and I know he was hoping one day to be like them and walk off the lot as a ‘Tribune Millionaire.’ Tony Majeri and I used to talk about it too - the sudden devaluation of the stock meant he had to linger longer than he wanted to at Trib Tower. A lot longer.
And now this.
Several years ago that stock sitting in my retirement account was idling comfortably around $60 a share - now I can’t wait to bail fast at $34 in a few days once I get the chance. The closing of the deal is still rocky.
So maybe I finally can now rollover that 401(k) I left 10 years and three jobs ago. After all, there’s no evidence the private issues Zell will begin minting will yield a new class of ‘Tribune Millionaires’ from the hard-working folks who most deserve the chance to become them.
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