Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
Portfolio's Jack Flack tries to answer a provocative question: who is the smarter newspaper owner, Sam Zell or Rupert Murdoch. It might be an unfair question, since Murdoch has run newspapers and Zell so far has only pretended. Flack prefers the older, more experienced curmudgeon and here's the short version of why:
1 - Zell bought something of value; Murdoch bought something of unique value.2 - Murdoch sees a bigger play; Zell sees stand-alone assets.
3 - Murdoch willingly takes risks in buying assets; Zell only buys assets when he can avoid risks.
4 - Murdoch knows how to focus attention; Zell only knows how to attract it.
5 - Zell relishes being an outsider; Murdoch only relishes appearing to be an outsider.
I guess Flack isn't impressed that Zell's employees are laughing at him for claiming he was just being a master tactician by saying pussy and telling one of his new "partners" in journalism to fuck off.