A Register Orange County Business News blog post that went up last night crows that it learned from “four inside sources” Monday that Burl Osborne will be named chief executive officer of the paper's parent company Freedom Communications Inc. of Irvine when the board
meets later this week.
But close readers “OC Register Death Watch” posts on the Weekly's staff news Navel Gazing blog already knew that—15 days earlier. Here's what Death Watcher “davey threshire” wrote in the comments section at 4:59 p.m. June 1, under the post headlined “Will Freedom Take Playboy Down With the Register?”:
“Burl Osborne, a board member, will become CEO. Alan Bell, former CEO
and Jon Segal nemesis, will rejoin the board and strike terror in the
hearts of anyone who cares about the future of the company. Not that it
has one as Freedom Communications.”
Osborne will succeed Scott Flanders, who leaves Freedom at the end of the month to become CEO of Playboy Enterprises Inc.–something you also read first in the comments to another Navel Gazing OC Death Watch post.
Eleven days after “davey threshire” broke the news that Osborne would become CEO, “Chuck E Cheese” whipped up a bio dripping with sarcasm in a Death Watch comments.
]
Freedom didn't have to search long and hard
for this dinosaurer. Seems he was hiding out on its Board of Directors
when he wasn't submerged in the La Brea Tar Pits.
Here's his bio:
Burl Osborne, age 97, Independent Director. Mr. Osborne formerly
held several positions in the Belo Corporation: President, Publishing
Division from 1995 to 2001; Director from 1987 to 2002; and Publisher
from 1986 to 2001 of The Dallas Morning News Co., with which he became
associated in 1980. Mr. Osborne continues as Chairman of the Belo
Foundation. In connection with The Associated Press, Mr. Osborne has
served as Chairman of the Board since 2002, Director since 1993 and as
a member of the Executive Committee. Mr. Osborne also has served as
Director and Past Chairman of Southern Newspaper Publishers
Association; Director of Newspaper Association of America; Past
president of the sons of the Alamo, Chapter President of the Doughboy's
(WWI) Reunion Foundation, Currently, he serves as Director of the
Committee to Protect Journalists; Co-chair of This Internet Thing Is A
Fad Foundation; Director of Give Our Kids N Grandkids A Place On
Your Board Committee; Director of the National Kidney Foundation; and
Director of J.C. Penney Company, Inc. since April 1, 2003. He is also
Pressident of his neighborhood POA and occassionally walks aimlessly
through the streets of Dallas muttering something about a damn headline
proclaiming “Dewey defeats Trumans”
Mr. Osborne earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marshall
University in Huntington, West Virginia and a Master of Business
Administration degree from Long Island University. He obtained a
correspondence degree from the Columbia School of Broadcasting. (not
affiliated with CBS) He also participated in the Advanced Management
Program at the Harvard Business School. He's brushed against Touchdown
Jesus on the campus of Notre Dame In South Bend and has played lawn
darts on the campus of Dartmouth. Mr. Osborne has done shooters with
Barry Switzer and once Bob Knight threw a chair at him during an
Indiana / Marshall basketball game.
That produced these reactions:
“Hef“: wow, what a resume!!!! Anyone older they can get? How about John Wooden? The end is apparently nearer than we think.
“Gordon Gekko“: After
reading Mr. Osborne's bio its apparent he doesn't have the credentials
of Freedom's current CEO. He hasn't demonstrated how to leave every
company he works with in worse shape than when he started.
Incidentally, davey threshire can now throw his Osborne disclosure in the face of “you are a mole,” who posted this in the Death Watch comments a day after the original Osborne disclosure:
“Ya
know Davey, you must be pretty high up in the co. to have this kind of
knowledge. Sad that you are spilling this info to a web blog. I hope
they find out who you are and fire you. Oh wait…everyone will be
fired once they file for bankruptcy after the waiver expires. Freedom
will be owned by the banks, actually already are….
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.