Jeremy Halbreich, the former DMN and American Consolidated Media exec who recently joined the Chicago Sun-Times board, says that despite rumors from the Windy City, he’s not interested in taking over as president of the company. “It’s not what I signed up for,” Halbreich just told Wick Allison, who suddenly forgot how to talk to the Internet and ordered asked me to post this for him.
2 comments
Perhaps Jeremy is waiting for just the right moment to buy the DMN at a “distress sale” and save it.
If Halbreich is out of contension, the next most likely candidate is Rick Surkamer, a former employee of the Chicago Tribune who is currently the COO of the Sun-Times Media Group, Inc. (the holding company for the Chicago Sun-Times). He may face some obstacles also. He is also rumored to be on the same list as Cyrus Freidheim: the dissident shareholders want him out too.
That makes sense from this viewpoint, Freidheim never really understood the newspaper business. His point man in this mess was Surkamer.
Bottom line: if Halbreich is serious, I’m not sure who might be the next viable candidate.