BIZZYBLOG ON THE TRIBUNE CO. SALE: “I believe that the sale of The Tribune Company last week to investor Sam Zell is an unrecognized low-water mark in the newspaper publishing business. In fact, after subtracting the value of the Tribune’s non-newspaper properties from the deal, what little value remains indicates that the value of having access to a newspaper’s readers is a mind-boggling 70% less than it was a mere seven years ago.”

UPDATE: Doc Searls says that Zell is “clueless.” And see this from Rex Hammock, too.

ANOTHER UPDATE: William Beutler: “Not only does Zell have no idea what he’s talking about, he has no idea what he’s doing.”

This consensus almost made the contrarian in me want to bet on Zell. But only until I read the interview.