Our long ordeal is nearly over!  It appears that a change is coming to the leadership of the Tribune Company, and it could not come soon enough.  Having endured the Zell years I can say that they were truly awful.  A once great company and key newspapers in Chicago and Los Angeles were turned into rubble.  The purchase of  Tribune, mainly for the real estate – both buildings and Wrigley Field, bought at the height of the valuations for papers, went terribly wrong.

The final resolution has been going on for an extended period and mainly pits groupings of creditors against one another for the best settlement.  The major creditors lead by Angelo, Gordon & Co. and Oaktree Capital Management as well as the ever present JP Morgan Chase are in the driving seat with $8.6 billion in claims.  Many of the smaller creditors are not in agreement with the proposed settlement and have been successful in holding things up.

The key news that came out today is that Michael Eisner, formerly head of Disney is among the group being interviewed as the Chairman of Tribune.  Zell is to be gone, long live the Zell.  Hard to think of Mickey Mouse now leading my dear Los Angeles Times.  Not since Ron Burkle and Jon Peters tried to buy it before Zell.  Wow, I’ll have a comb out and blow dry with my box of Cheerios please!

Eisner could be the leader of a very well traveled group of former senior leaders I won’t bore you with – cause they bore the heck out of me.  One interesting choice also mentioned is Michael Wolff, founder of Newser, the online quick news site and writer for Vanity Fair magazine.  Michael also is close to Rupert Murdoch, having written a biography on him – wouldn’t that make a nice pairing for the future?

I’ll wait here in my bubble for further breaking news on who will be the winner, and who will get tagged to lead Tribune.  This should be really interesting, especially to see what ideas they come up with to payoff the debt to all of the creditors who are still licking their lips in anticipation of a change at the top.

The single biggest thing I thank Disneyland for is that is where I met the LRHG who became my wife, and mother of my two buy DN1 and DN2. It is now 37 years later, and still thankful for the day I first met her in the Inbetween – the employee cafeteria.

What a great place to work, with so many memories – sorry I missed your birthday!

Looking for a way to resolve the problem, I went on line and left feedback for both the vendor and Amazon.  I’ve heard nothing back from either – now 17 hours later, but that is understandable – I’m not unreasonable.  The funny thing is that I got an email from another sub-vendor I bought a used book from instead.  This order was from a couple of weeks back.  They were concerned about the negative feedback on my order with them and were going to process an immediate refund.  I went on line and found the negative feedback in their folder for my order, and then to the ‘real’ culprit and it was there as well.  Somehow a ‘glitch’ occurred on the Amazon system.

I responded to my book vendor with corrected feedback – and a warm feeling all over.  They stepped up and made an immediate correction even though they were not wrong, the other guys haven’t responded as yet – I guess they haven’t had their morning coffee.

These are the things that I work on with my clients – deliver world-class service and your customers will respond.  I will check this stores lists in the future and try to give them all of my future purchases if I can – they are New Chapter Books.  The other guys involved in this piece – not so much.

Good service pays every time – pay it forward – it feels great!  And to Kari in Customer Service at New Chapter Books –you have great day as well!

CNN has a report out by Tom Cohen, on a report released by Republican leadership entitled “Summertime Blues.” The report cited 100 projects funded by the Recovery Act of 2009 – you remember the $862 billion economic stimulus bill.  The report, as you might imagine coming from the Republican side of the aisle, highlights what they feel are wastes of money.  I would have to agree –and some of the projects that they highlight appear to be of dubious purpose and little merit.  Unless, of course you are a choreographer who wants to design dance moves with ‘interactive dance choreography.’  I’m not a dance man, just a song guy who can’t carry a tune, so this report is right up my ally.

I tend to beat things to death, so armed with that insight, I will be brief.  Of course there is a lot of ‘funny stuff’ in here – it comes from Washington.  When haven’t we seen a lot of weird and funny expenditures from our leaders in D.C.  I’m not here to bury these guys, and I’d like to turn the attention closer to home.  What is happening in your company and industry right now – where is the boondoggle money going there?  It exists everywhere – just with more zeros behind them when it comes from Washington.

My experience in the business world shows that there are many great new projects that come from company leadership, or even worse, ownership.  Their pet projects often suck up significant resources, and prove fruitless.  A few actually work, very few.

My clients today are being confronted with a whole set of new challenges coming from the adoption of new selling and marketing strategies driven by digital.  My advice is to really do your homework.  Step back and get a better understanding of your clients, and then move forward.  Digital is an outstanding investment – if done right.  Take your time and invest wisely.  Call in the experts to help you create a good plan, that will be your best investment in time and money.

Two great, and very timely, articles out recently that I wanted to comment on.  They hit very close to home to many of my clients who are trying to forge new strategies for the current economic downturn.  Many feel that we are starting to see some up ticks and bright spots in both consumer and commercial business.  Other still have their sad hats on.  Today, the word is mostly keep you sad hats on – it’s looks like a long slog back.

In Business Week, The New Abnormal, a cover story by Devin Leonard – we get a picture of America as a place where we are broke and depressed.  We are also still drinking our lattes and buying iPads and iPhones like hot bread at a bakery.  What gives?

What gives is that our current economic downturn is unlike any other I have experienced over the last 40 years.  We have gotten hooked on our new ‘tools’ (iPhones and such) and are not likely to give them up; in fact, we need to have the newest and fastest.  At the same time many are cutting back and scaling down on items like toothpaste, shampoo and other sundries that make us feel like we are making ‘sacrifices.’  As Leonard states it – “There it is: gloom, muted optimism, and wild abandon.”  I see it in my friends and business associates, and I see it in myself.

The problem is that our economy is based on consumption, and one of the places we are cutting back is our overall spending rate.  In the past we were exhorted to go shopping to help the economy – that’s not working now, and individuals and businesses alike are not spending –they are actually saving.  Good for them in the long term, but bad for us in the short term.

In The New Times, The Growth Imperative by columnist David Brooks – we have another journalistic home run.  Brooks outlines many of the same facts.  “Consumers are overindebted, and it will take years of curtailed spending before households are back on a sustainable path.  Federal and state governments also will have to pull back.  Labor markets were ill before the recession and are worse now.”  As I said earlier – nothing like I’ve seen before.  As an ad man my job was to get people spending – not so easy now.

Brooks highlights some approaches that could lead us out of things – from both the left and the right.  A number of great arguments have been offered on both sides.  What I focused on is that there is no easy way out.  As a people we tend to look for the easy way, one we can sell to the most people.  The problem is that people aren’t buying now – they are sad, angry, and yes, schizophrenic.  When this happens people do nothing – and that is what we have now, and will until the time we get our courage back.  A turn around is not just around the corner.  The long slog is on – plan to use it to your benefit.  When it rains sell raincoats.

I’m not a pessimistic guy, but I have learned to read the ‘tea leaves.’  Plan now for the long term solutions that will really have an impact on the future of your business and your career.  Build your infrastructure and get ready for good times that will inevitably come down the road.  Housing has been a strong engine where I live and news just came out the a large home builder was buying land – and planned to build 4 years from now.  Now that’s a smart move.  Check out both of the articles I quoted – both have great insights that you can use today to build your plans for tomorrow.

I signed up on line for information on the Honda hydrogen car some while back, but I never got the call for an invitation to test one out for a year.  I signed up for ‘information’ on the Nissan Leaf on their website, but the information never showed up in my inbox.  My wife is elated.

This week the official announcement came from Chevrolet that their new Chevrolet, not Chevy, if you please, Volt will be rolling out this year for the price of only, choke, $41,000, not counting the $7500 tax credit from the federal government.  This is the perfect solution for running around town since it has a limited range of about 40 miles on electricity only.  I claim that is about my daily range in today’s world, but my wife has that scornful look only wives can get.  I’m still doing my math trying to find other justifications.

They come in red – her favorite color.  She’s not impressed.  She tell’s me to ‘stick it’ one more time, but alas not where.  For now all I have is this picture of this pretty red car, and I’m still searching for that 240 volt socket for my place to stick it.  What’s a digital guy to do?

My point of view was how the change in the media / cycle was driving change by those who gather and distribute (started to say print) our news.  Staff was now living on the edge, getting up early and working late to capture the very latest scoop in order to feed the hungry news beast.  And then everything changed, again.

Shirley Sherrod, happened and the world grew indignant at the initial clip shown on cable and then network news.  The villagers of cable news called for her head…and low and behold they got it, immediately via a stop the car and dictate your resignation on a road in rural Georgia.  The problem then came later in the same 24 hour, old news cycle, that the story was wrong, the full clip was entirely different and a big mistake had been made.

Apologies have ensued, heads will roll (in the future), and pleasant phone calls were exchanged by the parties involved.  Now we have our senior government leaders blaming the new news cycle for forcing them to ‘jump the gun’ for their actions.

What I was trying to say at the beginning of the week is that we are living in a different media world where immediacy tends to trump ‘getting it right.’  It’s great to get my news on my new Droid X (shameless plug) with blazing speed anytime I need it, but I do miss the old get it right mentality of the 24 hour news cycle.

This is happening with all of our communications today, including all of our emails, blackberry.  Errors did happen on the old cycle, and I was usually handling those calls.  The difference now is that when we hit send – it is sent, and the whole world now has that news – you better hope you got it right – or get ready to field those nasty calls some of which could be coming from a gloating newspaper reporter, who however slowly is also looking for your head for your mistake.

Today the new, incoming USC President, Max Nikias, named Pat Haden to be the new Athletic Director at USC.  Pat, a star quarterback in the early 70’s personifies all of the virtues normally found on the plaques on the walls at Heritage Hall.  His job is to polish the brand and bring back both victory and an image that raging alumni are demanding.

When my son and I were talking about replacements for Mike Garrett, who we both felt needed to go in light of the numerous problems with both the football and basketball programs.  I could only think of one name that would be perfect for the job – Pat Haden.  I would like to think I am brilliant, but Pat was the obvious choice.

Pat has a long history with USC, both as an athlete and an equally large role as an alumnus who stayed extremely close to the school with numerous links to athletics the university in general.  This is going to be an exciting time for USC and for a whole new re-branding program.  As a consultant, I have been retained to help in rebuilding and re-branding troubled companies.  I know what it takes, and for all of SC’s recent troubles this won’t be a cakewalk.  However, this should be one for the textbooks – and we know how expensive those are today.  The right person got the job.  Good luck USC, good luck Pat Haden – Fight On Trojans.  This is one hell of a big game I know you will win.  We’ll be watching and keeping score – maybe even a new textbook or two on how to win with style, while polishing the brand at the same time.How

I’m blown away, but I think that it really foretells the future for all of us…even those of us who still sport an original iPhone after 3 years. I’ve been waiting for the quantum upgrade and the hoped Verizon version since my AT&T coverage in Irvine stinks. My second ‘digital native” Kevin this week stopped holding his breath and came home with a first day version of the newest Android phone – from Verizon. I’m green with envy, hard for me to see in a mirror however, since I’m red green colorblind.

I’m holding my breath now – the red is coming to my cheeks as I pen this missive, and I hope I can sustain myself for a while longer. I’m hedging my bets as I dig deeper into Google world and seeing how I can live in the clouds with a whole new set of apps to simplify my life. I’m old, out of shape, and I don’t know how much longer I can hold my breath! Come on Apple, a little help here for the Analog Sherpa.

I wish I could say that I have, but here in the O.C. with The Orange County Register as our daily paper of record, you can’t make the switch. The reason – the online edition is absolutely horrible! Hard to navigate, multiple replications of the same stories, story headlines and no copy. I could go on all day. I would have to assume that the editors are not willing to give their readers a choice – it’s the daily or nothing in this case. Even the Los Angles Times, the other paper in the O.C. does a better job. Sorry to admit that I used to work at The Register – but those were in the ‘golden days of yore.’