Ask Not For Whom the Cliche Buzzer Buzzes

It's looking more and more likely that Tribune Co. will default on its massive debt load sometime in the next year or two. But if that happens, it won't be for want of executive wackiness.

With the standard tools of business analysis all pointing to Sam Zell's $8.2 billion Tribune takeover being a bust, Zell is turning to managers who know how to "think outside the box," as it was briefly acceptable to say a decade ago.

His "chief innovation officer," Lee Abrams, "has already gained something of a reputation with long, rambling, excited e-mail messages to the staff, loaded with references to the history of rock 'n' roll," reports The New York Times. Here's a sample: ""If we can morph the Soul of Dylan ... with the innovation of Apple and the eccentric-all-the-way-to-the-bank of Bill Veeck, the WORLD will be a better place."

Abrams, a former XM Satellite Radio executive, has another favorite management technique, according to The Wall Street Journal: He brings a "cliché buzzer" with him to meetings to shame underlings whose suggestions he deems hackneyed. (Isn't the corporate suit with a rock-'n'-roll soul the biggest cliché of all? Just ask David Brent.)

But Abrams isn't the only wild-and-crazy guy imported by the Zell regime. His second in command, former Clear Channel exec Randy Michaels, "once arrived at a radio broadcasters' conference carried on a litter and dressed in the garb of an Egyptian pharaoh," notes the Journal. (He was making a point about ownership consolidation, duh.)

Alas, the zaniness won't be limited to personal affectations. Zell's team is experimenting with a variety of unusual initiatives, including the merger of a television station and a newspaper (the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Miami's WSFL.) And in his dealmaking, he continues to favor any novel arrangement that will keep money out of the government's hands, even if it means hampering a sale he'd like to make. According to the Times, Zell is insisting that would-be buyers of Newsday make their offers in the form of real estate swaps and other non-cash payment to cut down on the capital gains tax hit.

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