
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.