Tribune CEO Michaels May Soon Be Out
CHICAGO (CBS) - The Tribune Company board may ask for chief executive officer Randy Michaels' resignation later Tuesday.
Michaels may also resign on his own before the meeting.
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In the past couple of weeks, Michaels and his colleagues have been the subject a scathing report in the New York Times, and one of Michaels' subordinates resigned after sending an inappropriate e-mail to workers.
Last week, chief innovation officer Lee Abrams sent out an e-mail with links to an assortment of raunchy videos. One of the video links was labeled "Sluts," and featured a gyrating woman who appeared to pour liquor over her bare breasts, Tribune columnist Phil Rosenthal reported.
Michaels announced Abrams' resignation on Friday.
The e-mail flap comes one week after the New York Times carried a front page story detailing a "frat house" culture in the Tribune executive suite.
The New York Times article by David Carr cited several current former Tribune executives and staffers, who claimed that Tribune Co. chief executive officer Randy Michaels and his executives had "shocked and offended people throughout the company" with their "use of sexual innuendo, poisonous workplace banter and profane invective."
Among the more shocking claims in the article were a quote by one executive that Michaels had offered a waitress $100 to bear her breasts at a formal business dinner, and a report previously disseminated by media columnist Robert Feder about a party for senior management with cigars and poker tables in the former office of Tribune baron Col. Robert R. McCormick.
The New York Times report also mentioned numerous criticisms of real estate mogul Sam Zell's deal to take the Tribune Co. private, and of changes at WGN radio – particularly the hiring of former city clerk and convicted felon Jim Laski for a talk show.
Michaels has been at the helm of the Tribune since December of last year.
