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UNCHAINED: Press Notes (3#) -

Can Lee Abrams Rescue The Sun-Sentinel?

Robert Love writes a lengthy portrait of The Tribune Co's new dramaturge, Lee Abrams. Comparisons may be made to the late Jerry Nachtman or Roger Ailes, but his official title is: Chief Innovations Officer. As such, he is having only a very superficial effect on the South Florida branch of the company so far.

I agree with this excerpt:

"In many ways, the anger directed toward Abrams now seems misdirected, if understandable. Abrams may be the herald for change, but he is not responsible for the meltdown that led to this crisis.The problems facing newspapers in this transitional period come from every quarter and have been festering for a decade, for the most part unaddressed... Still, I came away believing that he is acting in good faith."

But I have a problem with this:

"So he works away in his Chicago office, dreaming up new ways to connect readers to this rapidly changing content, cheering for innovation where it sprouts."

The SF Sun-Sentinel is not connecting to readers and exhibits every sign that they do not want to. They have developed a bunker mentality and flaunt their Recursion.

I think that Sam Zell is actually looking to Abrams to be a kind of rainmaker. And in that role Abrams may have only mixed success. [cjr]

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Plus, a couple of footnotes:

# Carlos Slim Helu, a reputed billionaire businessman,
has bought 6.4% of The New York Times Co. [e&p]

# Charles Apple has a glimpse of The Chicago Tribune's new design, scheduled for debut September 29th. And there is a video available there.

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