Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

With the acquisition of Tribune Co. completed today, Sam Zell took little time to shake things up at the company, by installing a number of new people in key positions.

Understanding the immediate importance to get things moving quickly in the existing company culture, Zell focused that with the people he put in place.

One example is former "shock radio" personality Randy Michaels, who will be one of his key operating managers. That should be an interesting story to watch, as he interacts with those around him, especially when Zell has made it completely clear that they need more of a sense of urgency and demands quicker action and increased accountability.

Other people he's already put into key places are cable-TV executive Maggie Wilderotter; William Pate, one of Zell's key people throughout the years, from Equity Group Investments LLC; Jeff Berg, a Hollywood agent; Frank Wood, who used to own radio stations; Brian Greenspun, a Las Vegas real estate, publishing and gambling businessman; Maggie Wildrotter, a cable-TV executive.

Two people who are staying on the board are Betsy D. Holden, who formerly worked as an executive in the food industry, and William A. Osborn, the CEO of Northern Trust Corp.

Zell said he wanted to especially shake up the board, and include uncoventional people on it, in line with his vision of how to proceed ahead.

While all of this is probably well and good, it doesn't deal with the immediate problems of how to service the enormous debt taken on after the buyout. The $13.2 billion debt load is one of the largest in America. It will take over $1 billion in the next year just to service the interest on the debt.

That seems to say, as mentioned here, that there will be an ongoing number of pieces of the company sold over the next couple years. The declining advertising market makes it about impossible to count on that to generate enough revenue to take care of it.

Others believe there may have to be massive layoffs to handle the debt pressures. Zell responded to that saying his record shows it's not his way of operating. Even so, he may have no choice if assets aren't able to sell quick enough, or ad revenue performs worse than expected.

Looking at the long-term, Zell says if he is able to pay off the loans over the next 10 years, he, along with the employees at the company, will own a business worth billions. Of course that's a big if, and the question will be how many employees will remain under the Tribune umbrella after selling pieces of the company and potential huge cutbacks.

This will be a good case study to watch and see if Zell can make this happen. He definitely has the will, now we'll have to see if he can employ a successful strategy that lines up with his past way of operating.