Tribune Publishing Could Not Have Picked A Worse Name For Its Rebranding

What the tronc? 

Tribune Publishing, the troubled owner of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun, announced Thursday it was trading its storied corporate name for "tronc Inc." -- short for Tribune online content. 

The internet immediately began masterfully, mercilessly, making fun of the rebranding:

There's also the issue of the English meaning of "tronc" -- a box for collecting tips for staffers (typically at a restaurant or hotel) to split later -- which derives from the French word for "poor box."  

Tribune Publishing, a media company with a nearly 170-year old legacy, has -- like most newspaper publishers -- been in tumult lately as advertising and circulation plunge.

Chicago tech mogul Michael Ferro invested in Tribune Publishing this year (he still holds shares in the rival Chicago Sun-Times.) Ferro swiftly installed a new CEO and became board chairman.

Since then, Ferro has fended off an $860 million offer from USA Today owner Gannett Publishing. 

Ferro is said to be longtime friends with another major Tribune -- sorry, tronc  -- investor, billionaire Los Angeles surgeon Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. Soon-Shiong was announced Thursday as the company's vice-chairman. He said he plans to speed tronc's transition from newspapers to online publishing with machine vision and artificial intelligence. 

“We will benefit from Dr. Soon-Shiong’s entrepreneurial spirit and strong technology expertise as we aggressively implement the changes necessary to transform the company and create superior value,” Ferro said in a statement. 

The company's statement  on the rebranding -- a gobbledygook of buzzwords like "monetization" and "premium, verified content" -- also noted it would shift from the New York Stock Exchange to Nasdaq, where it will begin trading June 20.

Topping off the company's tone-deaf nonsense, the team behind the rebranding apparently forgot to check tronc-related social media accounts before the announcement: