Workers Pay for Debacle at the Tribune Newspaper: NY Times:

[amborin]

"Sam Zell acknowledged from the start that his deal for the Tribune Company was flawed.

“I’m here to tell you that the transaction from hell is done,” Mr. Zell said last December when he sealed his $8.2 billion takeover of the publisher of The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times.
.........
The real estate baron financed much of his deal’s $13 billion of debt by borrowing against part of the future of his employees’ pension plan and taking a huge tax advantage.

Meanwhile, Mr. Sorkin says, the people who mismanaged the company before the buyout managed to get out with a tidy sum for their efforts.

Now, with the media company in bankruptcy, it is the employees who will pay..."

<snip>

<http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/workers-pay-for-debacle-at-tribune/?scp=1&sq=workers%20pay%20for%20debacle%20at%20tribune&st=cse>

[Skink]

1. No tax sweetheart deal. All cities do it.

Then they just raise the sales tax.

[EFerrari]

2. On the other hand, the whole country is still paying for the debacle at the NYTs. n/t