Conrad's Black Eye

摘要

Conhad black loves a good fight. The blustery press baron who owns the Chicago Sun-Times, Britain's Daily Telegraph and more than 140 other newspapers worldwide often writes letters to his own publications taking potshots at opponents. Two years ago, he even renounced his Canadian citizenship in a public battle with Prime Minister Jean Chretien in order to become a British peer, Lord Black of Crossharbour. As biographer Peter C. Newman put it, "He has the body language of a puma in heat." But Black, 59, may not be quite so nimble as he thought. As he set out on a book tour of Toronto and New York City last week to tout his new biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Black found himself at the center of a typhoon over alleged improprieties in his business affairs. On Wednesday, Black resigned as CEO of Hollinger International, his Chicago-based public company, after shareholders revolted against him, and regulators in the U.S. and Canada opened probes. Late Friday night Hollinger's Canadian parent company, which Black controls, announced that its four-member audit committee had resigned. Now the $1 billion newspaper empire he spent four decades building seems to be headed for the auction block.