Business

Creditors push long list of faves for Tribune Co. CEO spot

(Bloomberg)

The short list of possible Tribune Co. CEOs is getting longer.

Peter Murphy, the former chief strategy officer at Disney during the Michael Eisner era, is one of the latest to pop up on the radar screen of Tribune creditor Oaktree Capital Management, which has been scouring the field of potential executives.

Murphy now runs Wentworth Capital Management.

Eisner, once mentioned as a contender for the role, is a longtime friend of John Angelo, who runs New York hedge fund Angelo, Gordon — a big Tribune creditor.

“Everyone has a different nominee,” said one search insider, noting there are a number of creditors with views on who they want running the business moving forward.

The search team also reached out to Sony Television president Steve Mosko — who is not considered a contender as he just signed a new deal with Sony — along with others on the senior management team.

One person said current Tribune boss Eddy Hartenstein wants to keep the role. Hartenstein is a former vice chairman of DirecTV.

Another surprise candidate to surface is Jeff Gaspin, who was Jeff Zucker’s No. 2 at NBC and held the title of chairman of NBC Television.

Gaspin exited the company around the same time as Zucker after Comcast took the firm over in January 2011.

Zucker was also on the short list of possible CEOs, The Post reported yesterday. The former NBCUniversal boss is additionally being looked at as a candidate for chairman of Tribune.

The search committee has been sounding out senior media people about how well Zucker would play in a chairman’s role.

“They are looking for someone to be the Wall Street guy,” the source added.

Tribune Co. assets include The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and 23 TV stations and the national network, WGN America. It also holds a 31.3 percent stake in Scripps Networks Interactive’s Food Network.

A rep for Tribune declined comment. Executives could not be reached.