Tribune Co. wants to pay $13 mil in bonuses

Tribune Co., the newspaper company taken private by real-estate billionaire Sam Zell, asked a bankruptcy judge to approve $13.3 million in bonuses for 693 managers.

The top 10 executives of the Chicago-based publisher are excluded from the proposal, according to papers filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

The company also is seeking permission to pay $2.5 million to 70 employees fired last year before Tribune filed bankruptcy.

"These payments are vitally necessary to reward participants for their extraordinary contributions during an exceptionally difficult year," the company told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey in court papers.

Tribune, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Cubs baseball team, filed for bankruptcy in December, blaming high debt load and a drop in advertising.

Under bankruptcy court rules, companies can request permission from a judge to reward mangers for reorganizing a company.

Also yesterday, Smurfit-Stone Container Corp., North America's second-largest maker of cardboard boxes, won court permission to pay $47 million to 3,700 executives and other employees. Last month, Nortel Networks Corp., once the largest telephone-equipment maker in North America, was authorized to pay eight executives as much as $7.3 million, part of a bonus program worth as much as $45 million to almost 1,000 managers and other workers.

70 Percent Reduction

In a note to company employees, Tribune Chief Operating Officer Randy Michaels and Executive Vice President Gerald Spector said the bonuses will be as much as 70 percent less than in previous years.

Robert Paul, a lawyer representing the Washington Baltimore Newspaper Guild's members at the Tribune's Baltimore Sun, didn't immediately return a voice-mail message seeking comment yesterday. A call to the Graphic Communications Conference union offices wasn't immediately returned.

Tribune employs about 14,600 people, mostly at its eight newspapers and 23 television stations.

The case is In re Tribune Co., 08-13141, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington)