Michael Ferro Jr., Chairman, Wrapports LLC, parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times; chairman, Merge Healthcare

( January 7, 2013 )

Why we're watching: While the Chicago Tribune's parent company, Tribune Co., has just emerged from bankruptcy protection under new ownership, Ferro enters his second year in the challenging publishing industry.

He has tough negotiations ahead with the Newspaper Guild as he tries to get Wrapports into the black. He also said he would review the company's printing and distribution contract with the Tribune, which was negotiated by previous owners of both newspapers. The Sun-Times is the Tribune's largest outside customer, paying about $70 million a year for printing and distribution services, Ferro said.

Despite unprofitability, Wrapports is pursuing deals for local and regional media outlets east of the Mississippi River, but Ferro wouldn't say which ones.

When asked whether cost cuts, such as shuttering the Sun-Times' suburban newsrooms, would continue, Ferro said: "The reason we're doing what we're doing is to be more digital and agnostic. We need to have everybody working together ¿ because the old print model is going down."

Photo: Michael Ferro, chairman of the Chicago Sun-Times LLC, speaks during the "Titans at the Table" Bloomberg Television program in Chicago in April. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg file photo)