Tribune asked a bankruptcy judge yesterday to rule that its subsidiary Tribune Media Services owns the TV and film rights to the 78-year-old Dick Tracy franchise, despite the fact that Warren Beatty says he owns it. The dispute is ludicrously byzantine, but Tribune is essentially accusing Beatty, who had acquired the rights from Tribune in 1985 so he could make a terrible, terrible movie with his girlfriend Madonna, of setting up a fake TV production to keep them from reverting to Tribune.

According to the agreement, Tribune could seek reversion of the rights granted to Beatty if, within five years of the movie's release, he had not begun principal photography on another feature film or television series or special. The agreement allowed Tribune to serve notice to Beatty after five years, giving him two more years to begin principal photography on another project. Beatty claims...that he began principal photography on a television special in November, and that Tribune is thus precluded from trying to effect a reversion of the rights. Tribune...claimed in its bankruptcy filing that Beatty has failed to prove that photography on the TV special has begun, and that a $15,000 check he sent to Tribune as payment for the half-four special was just a sham attempt to retain the rights to Dick Tracy. Tribune returned the check.

According to Tribune, Beatty's attempt to hang on to Dick Tracy—presumably for another feature film, presumably not starring Beatty in the lead—has "effectively locked away certain motion picture and television rights to the Dick Tracy Property from such productive and profitable uses, to the tremendous detriment" of the company.

Jeez, TribCo. We know fifteen grand used to be chump change to you, but is a bankrupt company really in a position to be returning checks? Also, he's a little bit of a buttoned up character for Tribune Chief Innovation Officer Lee Abrams' "CASUAL STYLE."

Jarvis, a former ink-stained wretch, calls it a historic moment. Perhaps it is for him, since the Entertainment Weekly founder has made a career out of guiding old media organizations into digital nirvana. To make his living, it helps if he can argue that there's a pot of gold at the end of the online rainbow.

So LA Times editor Russ Stanton's recent disclosure that the newspaper's website revenues covers its editorial overhead — print and online — makes a handy PowerPoint slide for Jarvis.

But Stanton's claim doesn't withstand casual scrutiny for anyone familiar with the economics of online-only publications. The LAT newsroom, even after considerable cuts, still houses 660 people. And yet, in December, according to the newpaper's own figures, its website only generated 120 million pageviews. At that rate, that's 2.2 million pageviews per employee per year. One Gawker Media blogger, in a much-cited example, did double that figure in a month.

And fishiest of all, Jarvis's scenario doesn't include any expense for actually selling those ads. Do Stanton and Jarvis think ads, online or off, get magically sold through the simple grandeur of the wordsmithing to which they're attached?

Perhaps the Tribune Co., the publisher of the Times, is phenomenally good at running its business, but I doubt that, since it recently filed for bankruptcy. More likely: Stanton is engaging in wishful accounting. And since Stanton's tale suits Jarvis's needs, he's reprinting it without applying a media critic's needed skepticism.

So we’ve stopped the service contract, stopped the maintenance. We’ve actually disconnected about half of the equipment on the eighth floor. We have surplus air conditioning. While that may not be material, it represents the kind of opportunity that exists here. We’re busy changing the culture to save money.” In other words, people don’t kill newspapers. Machines kill newspapers. But not quite. People are to be blamed as well, Michaels suggested in the same breath, especially congregations of them: “I realized that in the first few months here, I was always busy, but not getting a lot done … Twelve people would show up in the office. We had a culture of meetings. I’m sure they were informative and helpful. Everyone could stay busy going to meetings. We’re actively campaigning against meetings if something could be handled by a conversation in the hall or a quick email. We’re having a lot fewer meetings and getting more done.”

Dear fellow Newsday employee,

Sam Zell hosted a conference call with Tribune lenders today. In the course of taking questions, he acknowledged that he has received inquiries about Newsday.

As we all know, Newsday does an excellent job of serving a very desirable marketplace of people who are highly valued by advertisers. It is not surprising that the possibility of acquiring Newsday would generate a lot of interest. Whether anything will ultimately happen as a result of these expressions of interest is not known at this time. I know this creates uncertainty; however, the people of Long Island are depending on us to stay focused on delivering them local, unique and useful news and information, such as our important investigative coverage of LI school districts' pension scandal.

If and when there is something tangible to report, I will let you know.

Ms. Jacob learned that Zell's Manufacured Home Communities (which is now called "Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc.") has a history of suing cities to make them repeal rent control laws and also they enjoy "running people out of older mobile home parks," just for the kicks. So she said as much, and then they sued her for defamation, and they lost, but now they're appealing, even though their case seems pretty thin.

So now she's writing an editorial about it. She submitted it to the Zell-owned L.A. Times, but they rejected it for some reason!

All we have to say is listen up, old people—you can whine about that 25% rent hike but you're subsidizing quality journalism. If you want to save the newspaper industry and keep that DC bureau open, you're gonna have to suck it up. It's the patriotic thing to do.

I Won't Be Sued Into Silence [Voice of San Diego]

• Time Out Chicago apparently managed to convince some that their new publisher was Donald Trump.
• Hipster Book Club was pretty funny today. Our favorite post, primarily because of its use of the word "limned," is this book review by "Juniko Katutani."
• Daily Candy demonstrated an alarming sense of self-awareness today with posts, like this one offering celebrity skin flakes, that were more or less indistinguishable from their normal fare.
• The UK papers went over-the-top, with the Telegraph and the Mirror collaborating with the BBC on a "flying penguins" story that was just an ad for the BBC.

Not after have such a close up look at such a dedicated group of people who continue to survive the incredible odds that keep jumping in their way.

The value in this "product" is produced right here, in the newsroom. It's the reporters, editors, photographers, researchers, librarians, artists and all the others who bring value to this paper and make it one of the best in the country. And that's in spite of the turmoil foisted upon us for the last several years. It's not the flash, not the investment bankers, or wall street or some yahoo sitting in a corporate office. People buy and read this newspaper for the news, the content that is created and distributed each and every day in whatever medium. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot and screw 'em.

Subject: going down the road feelin'... ...well, feeling a lot of things. Not all should be shared. Words fail. ...You're the toughest staff employed by any publication anywhere. If there's any justice in this business, things will get better.

From: Talk to Sam
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 1:35 PM
Subject: Shocking Video
Partners,

I returned from out of the country this weekend to learn that one of our employees had entered a video in the Sun-Times contest designed to protest a name change of Wrigley Field.

Needless to say, I was shocked! Appalled! The video was a blatant disregard for Tribune Company policy. It demonstrated a glaring disrespect for your chairman and CEO. (I'm much better looking, clearly more agile, and I think whoever played me was singing off key.)

So, I immediately referred to the 11th commandment: Thou shalt not take oneself too seriously. And, then I shared the video with my family and friends.

Here's the link if you didn't catch it: http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-suntimes-song-contest,0,1932877.htmlstory

It's most definitely worth the watch, and it was a deft grab of the ball away from that other paper. What was their name again?

Sam

Lee Abrams has an exciting theory about culture: "NEWS & INFORMATION IS THE NEW ROCK N ROLL." Remember how awesome ROCK N ROLL was in the 20th century? That's how awesome NEWS & INFORMATION will be in the 21st century.

Lee Abrams realizes that sometimes famous people have said things better than he ever could. That's why he signs off his introductory memo like this: "instead of reading about the doom and gloom, check out these quotes." It's hard to pick just one out of the 60 he included, but number 40 from Pablo Picasso &mdash "Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction" &mdash really speaks to future of Tribune Co.

I love how this guy thinks. Who cares he's a self-described "economic dunce." What does money have to do with current state of journalism? He's got it all worked out: "If Tribune properties turn users into fans ... the revenue WILL skyrocket. That I know." Seriously, Tribuners, don't freak out. The revenue WILL skyrocket. He knows THAT.

Lee Abrams is so awesome he isn't even afraid of the Osama Bin Laden: "Terrorists don't scare me...a dumb America is frightening."

I bet this guy totally loves Vampire Weekend.