'LA Times' Blogger to Zell: We Want Board Seats!

Can pressure tactics get Sam Zell to change his ways? The anonymous Los Angeles Times staffer behind the blog Tell Zell has started a petition asking for Zell to add two new seats to Tribune Co.'s board: one to represent employees, and another for readers.

The blogger, who calls him- or herself Ink-Stained Retch, very reasonably points out that workers deserve to be heard since they technically own Tribune through the Employee Stock Ownership Plan that Zell engineered. Readers, meanwhile, "deserve a voice because they are what the paper is all about: the community."

"Yes, there are a lot of details to work out," adds Retch. "Yes, a petition might be ignored. Yes, it's unclear whether some of Zell's lieutenants can even read. What's the alternative, dry-eyed skeptic? We can sit at our desks and read Romenesko. Or we can try to act in every way we can to save the newspaper."

The petition's goal is 1,000 signatures. As of now, it has 42.