Zell: Tribune Co. will exit bankruptcy in first half of year

Sam Zell, chairman of Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co., told CNBC on Wednesday that he didn't know when the media company will emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection but "it's reasonable to assume that it will come out probably in the first half of this year."

Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2008 because of the debt taken on a year earlier, when Zell took the company private. "I would tell you that the Tribune is doing really well," Zell said. "I think that an awful lot of the steps that the management of this company has taken to change the model, to reduce costs, to make the operations more efficient have all been coming through. So I'm very optimistic about the future of the company."

It has proved difficult to predict when Tribune Co. will come out of Chapter 11.