By: Mike Landon
It was a big weekend for business writers in Chicago. The opening act was the resignation of Richard Grasso from the New York Stock Exchange. Then, on Friday came local breaking news: Christopher Galvin, the scion of Motorola founder Paul Galvin, resigned in a dispute with the board of directors. Game on and the guys in business get to strut their stuff!

Based solely on the written reports in four newspapers: the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Crain's Chicago Business and the Daily Herald, here are the key facts of the story. 1) The Galvin family owns a controlling share of Motorola stock. 2) On Friday morning, following a two-day regular meeting of the board of directors, Galvin resigned following a dispute. 3) No successor was immediately named.

In fact, print coverage of events like this is becoming obsolete for savvy investors, as they turn to wire and net coverage of business news. However, the print coverage says a lot about the resources the local newspapers put into covering business news. That in turn is reflected in their electronic coverage.

Weighing in at two stories, a front page lead and 46 ci was the Daily Herald. The key story ran in the Saturday newspaper on page 1 and was written by Anna Marie Kukec. The Sunday story was in the business section by James Kane, and covered the top fold of the business section. It focused on the Baldridge Award and noted in paragraph 1 the company's 75th anniversary, later this week.

Kukec's story noted the 75th anniversary on Thursday, quotes two business analysts and forecasts Michael Zafirovski as the new CEO, though it does not attribute why. The story relied heavily on the company and board for background. I was surprised a local reporter couldn't dig up more. Otherwise a good effort.

The Sunday Kane story takes three paragraphs to get to the resignation of Galvin (in a list of problems faced by Motorola). From there, things begin looking up for Motorola. Remember that this story was focusing on the 75th anniversary of the company and the Baldridge Award. A minor head says, "It (the award) says we're doing the right things right." Not according to the board of directors you're not. This story, which celebrates the contribution of local people in winning a prestigious award should have been held. Bad timing.

Crain's Chicago Business ran a page one story of 22 ¾ ci. In the third paragraph it puts forward the name of Zafirovski as the new front-runner for CEO, without attribution. It notes the 75th anniversary celebrations slated for this week, but says the departure of Galvin tinge on them.

The piece written by Julie Johnsson and Sandra Jones, quotes two outsiders, one an editor of a high-tech trade magazine, and mentions the Iridium satellite venture as well as specific failures in working with Siemens, maintaining its handset near-monopoly, and intransigence in the semiconductor business as reasons for Galvin's failure. This was a hard-headed story, and only relied on the company for some quotes.

The Chicago Sun-Times first piece, on Saturday, was carried on page one as an above the fold tease (along with the Cubs and Susanna's Night Out). Attributed to Paul Carpenter, at the end of the story we learn this is a wire-service story, from AP and Bloomberg News.

Running 17 ¾ ci, the story mentions Iridium and unnamed analysts criticizing Galvin's strategic decisions. Two analysts are quoted. The Sunday piece in business was written by Howard Wolinsky and measures 18 ¾ ci. Wolinsky notes that Galvin has not granted an interview in more than a year. The story starts with a long quote from the Motorola board of directors, then notes, "praiseworthy as (Galvin's) track record may be, it wasn't enough." What a transition.

Wolinsky then goes on to recount the many problems under Galvin, and notes it was his father, Robert Galvin who started Iridium. Christopher Galvin led Motorola out of Iridium. This was a short piece, really the only piece written by the Sun-Times, but catches Crain's in a mistake: Iridium. Ouch!

The Chicago Tribune's key piece ran in the Sunday business section, with 76 ¼ ci in two stories and a sidebar, all by Barbara Rose. It followed a Saturday business piece, also across the page and above the fold, by Rob Kaiser, with a contribution by Rose. Kaiser's story measured 22 ¾ ci. Kaiser's meat and potatoes story adds one new wrinkle, investors, who are generally upbeat about the departure of Galvin, may be surprised when the company does not meet earnings projections this quarter due to the loss of leadership.

I marked Rose's stories with several exclamation marks. First, it was obvious that Rose was in the middle of writing a story on the Motorola chip business. One story focuses almost exclusively on that portion of the business. Motorola has lost money in chip making and lost market share. Three months ago, according to the story, it named a new head of its chip subsidiary. In four years he has eliminated 70 percent of the managers of the subsidiary. The subsidiary is under greater pressure to perform now, as it is frequently mentioned as a divestiture candidate.

Quoting an analyst, Rose writes "simply breaking even (in chip making) would add 20 cents to...the bottom line."
ZING.

In her main story about Galvin's departure, she finds time to quote two analysts and, noting Zafirovski as the leading candidate, explains he is the only obvious internal candidate, but is hurt, because the board did not immediately name him as the replacement!

She goes on to note that Edward Breen, the former COO, who Zafirovski replaced, was an outsider who left Motorola to lead Tyco last year. Zafirovski has not had enough time to gain the political backing needed, nor the seasoning required to be CEO.

Concluding the story, Rose listed companies the new head of Motorola will have on his resume. Not only does it cover Galvin's era at Motorola, it lays out where the company is likely to look for a new leader.

The story was well done, earning every column inch it used.


MORE FROM MIKE LANDON:
The word on the street is that some Red Streak boxes are being removed--is this a withdraw of the product later in the year? The Reds, officially "editions" of their respective parent newspapers, hurt Sun-Times single-copy sales through May of this year, when the circulation was largely moved from free to fee. (Both newspapers are still available for free at some locations).

In the long run, the combination of Red Eye plus the city's developing street furniture program are a dangerous duo for the Sun-Times to deal with as a greater portion of its circulation is single-copy (i.e., impulse buys) than the competing Chicago Tribune. Former Sun-Times VP of Circulation Mark Hornung told the city in 1999 that sales through box locations where gang-boxes had replaced the stand-alone honor boxes, were off by about 67 percent. The City's deal with J C Decaux calls for further installation of gang-boxes in the city center and replacement of existing newsstands with the Decaux design (one is currently installed on Randolph Street at State Street).


If you're looking in the right place, you can see the Tribune Co. moves months away. So, when word began appearing in Editor & Publisher about the company's success with Hoy in other markets earlier this year, AND the various editions of Hoy were featured in a Michigan Avenue lobby display, it was obvious that someone had finally put enough money into a Spanish language daily in the market.

What was the reaction of its major competitor, LaRaza? First, it called for a boycott of !Exito!, the forerunner to Hoy based on a story about consular matriculars. This surely couldn't be the entire plan? (It was reminiscent of the LaRaza fanned controversy which proceeded the introduction of !Exito!, years ago. Then, Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Royko had caused a stir with a column about Mexicans. Then, too, there was a call for a boycott). No, LaRaza gained new financing last week and plans to combat Hoy with expanded distribution in suburban markets such as Waukegan. "What are they going to do?," asked one person familiar with the situation, "(they can't sell what LaRaza's) they print now."


Three days after a Crain's Chicago Business article said the Lincoln Park News was being reorganized, the newspaper's brown wooden honor boxes were being lifted from the street in the 43rd Ward. A woman who identified herself as the ward super said, the "alderman wanted them picked-up because the newspaper is out of business." First Amendment, assets and "reorganization" be damned. Still, who decides when to remove these boxes when the newspaper folds? And who pays for the removal?