Throughout his journeys around the Tribune Co., Sam Zell has criticized media properties operating in the same market for not working together. They've promised to force the media properties, such as KTLA and the Los Angeles Times, to work together in the future.

Since our last visit to Sam, he visited the Baltimore Sun and television stations in several markets, including Indianapolis and St. Louis. In video posted on an internal Tribune web site, Zell comes across without the profanity-laced discussions posted from earlier meetings. In addition, Zell is promising help in resolving technical problems and money for purchases, provided the local unit can prove the purchases will generate revenue.

At the Sun, he joked about his love for the HBO series "The Wire" and discussed the situation at the Washington, D.C. bureau of the Tribune Co. newspapers. They had, he said, sent a reporter from both the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times to cover the start of a program he described as a knock-off of American Idol in Afghanistan.

But in Florida he has gone further, combining the print and broadcast operations of WSFL and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. A memo about the new organization in Fort Lauderdale was posted on the LA Observed web site.