Sam Zell takes questions

In an internal conference call today, the Tribune CEO was asked "what went wrong" in his valuation of the company last year. Zell said his analysis assumed a 5 percent to 7 percent drop in revenues, in line with most expectations, but the actual drop was closer to 20 percent. "I don't know that anybody has a frame of reference on advertising revenue destruction that in effect is as bad as this going back all the way to the Depression," Zell said. On another front, Zell said a deal to sell the Long Island newspaper Newsday could close as early as next week. Cablevision agreed in May to pay $650 million for the Tribune-owned paper. Here's a Newsday story on the conference call. I'm looking for other versions.