Exec calls for OK of Tribune bankruptcy exit plan

WILMINGTON, DEL. (AP) - A top executive with Tribune Co. wants a judge to approve the company’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection as soon as possible.

Eddy Hartenstein, the company’s co-president and publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times, testified Monday that the cloud of Chapter 11 is hurting Tribune Co.’s ability to keep and attract employees and to forge partnerships that would help it compete in the rapidly changing media industry.

A federal judge in Delaware will decide whether to approve the company’s reorganization plan. Creditors backing an alternative plan began presenting their case after Hartenstein finished.

Tribune owns the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, other newspapers and broadcast stations. It sought bankruptcy protection in 2008 after a leveraged buyout saddled the company with more than $12 billion in debt.