Freedom board
Five independent directors, including the former president of Rolling Stone magazine, will serve on the Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc. board to lead the company after it exits bankruptcy, according to court papers filed Thursday.
The new directors will serve with Burl Osborne, who was named Freedom’s interim chief executive last June. Freedom is the parent company of the Odessa American. The Orange County Register is the flagship paper.
Also on the new board are:
>> James D. Dunning Jr., chairman. A Wharton economics graduate, he has extensive media experience in print, digital and television including as president and chief financial officer of Rolling Stone from 1977 to 1982. He has headed New York-based Dunning Group, a private media group which specializes in media leveraged buyouts, since 1992. Among his other positions, he was chief executive of Ziff Davis Publishing Co., a digital media company specializing in technology, from 2000-2001; served as president of CBS Twentieth Century in 1982 and led two telephone directory companies — Yellow Book Publishing in Rockville Centre, N.Y., and TransWestern Publishing LLC.
>> Donald C. Grenesko, director. He served as chief financial officer of the Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times, from 1980 to 2008.
>> Ross Levinsohn, director. He is founding and managing director of Fuse Capital, based in Palo Alto and Los Angeles, which invests in digital media and communications. He previously worked for News Corp from 2000 to 2006 where he rose to become president of Fox Interactive Media. He also worked at CBS Sportsline and Home Box Office.
>> Sean P. Moriarty, director. He is described as "entrepreneur in residence" at the Mayfield Fund, a Menlo Park venture capital firm with more than $2.8 billion under management. He previously was chief executive of Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc.
>> Mitchell Stern, director. He is an independent consultant who was chief executive of DirecTV Inc. from 2003 to 2005. He worked at Fox Television Stations Inc. in Los Angeles from 1986 to 2003, where he rose to chief executive.
Osborne was president of Dallas-based Belo Corp. from 1995 to 2001. He joined Belo’s Dallas Morning News as executive editor in 1980 and rose to publisher in 1991. He held a variety of positions with the Associated Press.
Separately, Freedom named retired television executive Gary R. Chapman as broadcast trustee, responsible for overseeing the company’s eight TV stations until the Federal Communications Commission transfers their licenses to the new owner.
Chapman is retired chairman and president of LIN-TV, a publicly owned operator of 31 television stations.
This is Chapman’s second stint with Freedom. He was general manager of the company’s Providence, Rhode Island, station, WLNE, from 1979 to 1984, and was Freedom’s director (later vice president) for television from 1984 to early 1989 when he joined LIN.
The board was named in advance of Freedom’s confirmation hearing on March 9, when a Delaware bankruptcy judge will determine if the company’s proposed reorganization plan is feasible and meets legal requirements.
The deadline for creditors to vote on the reorganization plan is Monday. If the judge confirms the plan, Freedom is expected to exit bankruptcy four to six weeks after confirmation.
