Excerpts: Tribune Owes LA Times’ ‘Cereal Killer’ $11 Million
- Tribune still owes $11.2 million to the former CEO of Times-Mirror (which Tribune bought in 2000) Mark Willes—a man most famous for massive layoffs and an ethical scandal of historic proportions.
- That predisposition ultimately led to a huge scandal at the LAT in 1999, when it was revealed that the paper had made a deal to sponsor the new Staples Center arena in Los Angeles, and agreed to split advertising revenues from a special Sunday Magazine supplement about the Center with the center.
- In essence, the subject of the stories in that section was being paid from it. It was a big deal at the time, and it was part of Willes’ legacy.
Source: Gawker