RANDY MICHAELS OUSTED AT TRIBUNE

Randy Michaels has been ousted as chief executive of The Tribune Company after waging a last-ditch effort to hold on to his job in the face of strident criticism of his crude management style that he brought with him from his years at rock-and-roll radio stations. The New York Times, which had earlier published an article documenting Michaels’s inappropriate conduct — an article that was apparently instrumental in bringing him down — commented in its report about the ouster that his “boorish behavior and cronyism became a dark sideshow to his bankrupt company’s financial struggles.” The newspaper indicated that throughout the past week Michaels had resisted efforts to depose him as CEO until Tribune chairman Sam Zell, who had brought the onetime disk jockey on board three years ago, personally intervened. The Tribune board appointed a four-man executive council to take over Michaels’s duties, presumably on an interim basis, while a search for a new CEO is conducted. The Times said that Michaels did not receive a lucrative severance package but will remain with the company as a consultant. Tribune is one of the nation’s largest media companies. It publishes The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and The Baltimore Sun and owns a raft of TV stations, including KTLA in Los Angeles, WGN in Chicago, and WPIX in New York.