NEW YORK — Lee Enterprises Inc., publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other newspapers, said in a regulatory filing that it will have trouble paying its debt over the next two years because of severe reductions in revenue. The company also disclosed that its outside auditor is questioning Lee’s ability to remain a “going concern” if the company is unable to refinance some loans. Industry analysts said Friday, however, that the auditor’s assessment was largely a technicality, one likely to be mirrored as other newspaper companies file annual reports over the next few months. Like the rest of the industry, Lee has seen advertising drop sharply as the recession compounded declines that began with the migration of readers and advertisers to the Internet. Lee’s daily papers include the Post-Dispatch, the Lincoln Journal Star in Nebraska, the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, Wis., and the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa. Lee said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that it generated suffi - cient cash flow in 2008 to reduce its debt by $102 million. But it will need to tap a revolving credit agreement to pay off $143 million in bank notes in 2009 and more than $166 million in notes due in 2010.
Newspapers are no different than anyother business. The economy has slowed down........for everyone!! They need to hold tight during this downturn and reinvent themselves in the process. Such as just getting back to basics. Like just plain old 'reporting the news'....ONCE!! Not every have hour.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Minneapolis paper files for bankruptcy MINNEAPOLIS — The Star Tribune says it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Minneapolis newspaper posted the announcement on its Web site Thursday. The filing comes less than two years after a private equity group, Avista Capital Partners, bought the paper for $530 million. In its filing, the Star Tribune says it listed assets of $493.2 million and liabilities of $661.1 million. The company says it hopes to use bankruptcy to restructure its debt and lower its labor costs. The Star Tribune has seen a sharp drop in print advertising, like many newspapers. In a statement, publisher Chris Harte said, “We intend to use the Chapter 11 process to make this great Twin Cities institution stronger, leaner and more effi cient so that it is better positioned for the future.”
N.Y. Times receives cash infusion, still faces debt problems in future BY ANICK JESDANUN The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The New York Times Co. bought time with a $250 million infusion from Mexican telecommunications billionaire Carlos Slim, but analysts say the loans won’t erase the company’s broader challenges of paying down debt while ad revenue plunges. The Times is paying a hefty interest rate of 14 percent and giving Slim warrants that could let him boost his stake in the company. That could turn one of the world’s richest men into one of the newspaper publisher’s biggest shareholders. “It provides some near-term cushion, but trying to solve the liquidity problem with expensive, long-term debt may only prolong the issue,” Mike Simonton, a bond analyst with Fitch Ratings, said Tuesday. Simonton said the required interest payments to Slim could further squeeze the Times’ cash flow. And the Times has already tried other big cash-saving moves, such as cutting its dividend by 74 percent. The Times, which publishes The Boston Globe and International Herald Tribune besides its flagship newspaper, has a debt of $1.1 billion. That includes two revolving credit agreements for $400 million each. One of the credit lines matures this May, and the other in June 2011. The company has another $100 million in notes due in November and $250 million next year. Company spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said Tuesday that because the Times currently uses only half of its revolving credit, the $250 million from Slim will be plenty to pay the loans due this year and reduce its reliance on revolving lines. Even so, the company will continue exploring other ways of coming up with financing. The Times has been trying to raise $225 million from its new, 52-story midtown Manhattan headquarters, either by selling the building and leasing it back or borrowing against it. That could help the Times pay off the notes due next year, Mathis said. With the recession exacerbating the problems caused by the migration of readers and advertisers to the Internet, the Times has been trying to conserve cash. Ad sales dropped nearly 21 percent in November compared with the previous year. That same month, the Times said its dividend cut would save $98 million a year — and would slash the income of the Ochs-Sulzberger family, which controls the company. The Times could also sell its 17.5 percent stake in the investment group that owns the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, portions of a cable sports network and a NASCAR team. Barclays Capital analyst Hale Holden has valued the Times stake at $140 million to $166 million. Analysts say asset sales and traditional loans likely would have been preferable to a private investment with the high interest rate and other favorable terms that Slim got. But with the credit markets tight and revenue prospects for newspapers bleak, the deal with Slim might have been the best option now. Mathis said the Slim deal “was a good price given the situation that the credit markets are in.” In a research note, Barclays Capital analyst Craig Huber said that while the Times “should be pleased” it got financing at all, the cost “is not a good sign” for other newspaper companies needing similar loans. “It’s indicative of how bad things are in the newspaper industry,” said Dave Novosel, senior bond analyst with the Gimme Credit research firm. “The good news is they’ve got a deal done.” Ken Doctor, media analyst at Outsell Inc., said the Slim loan “solidifies 2009 if 2009 doesn’t get worse” and removes pressure to unload assets at fire-sale prices if the Times believes it can get more later. And if the Times can get additional cash through sales or loans, Doctor said, the company gets more time — perhaps enough for the economy to rebound, and for the Times to better develop the revenue prospects for its digital properties. Slim’s companies Banco Inbursa and Inmobiliaria Carso will each hold $125 million in six-year notes from the Times. Slim will get a 14 percent interest rate; the Times has the option to pay 11 percent in cash and 3 percent in additional bonds. Slim will also benefit from any rise in...............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00501
By GENEVA OVERHOLSER AND GEOFFREY COWAN First published in print: Thursday, January 22, 2009
Newspapers are for sale across the country. National Public Radio and television news shows are laying off staff. The Tribune Co. is in bankruptcy. Journalism is in crisis and things probably will get much worse.
A robust media is vital to our democracy. While bloggers and other new-media operations have enriched the public, their work still depends on the painstaking — and expensive — reporting supplied by traditional journalists.
More people than ever are consuming news, but the economic model is broken. Much of the classified advertising market has fled to sites such as Craigslist, and the Web gives others more targeted and less expensive options. Subscriptions are down as readers access news online for free.
News coverage is costly. The New York Times reportedly spends more than $3 million a year to cover the Iraq war. And the reporting that uncovers wrongdoing requires a months-long commitment.
Although a banking-style bailout would be rejected out of hand by people concerned with maintaining a free and independent press, there are other possibilities. Since the start of the republic, the government has found creative ways to support the press. George Washington and James Madison led the effort to pass the Postal Act of 1792, which subsidized postal rates to encourage the dissemination of news.
Journalism is starting to look toward new ventures and possibilities, from nonprofit investigative reporting collaboratives to online community news start-ups. Citizens have begun contributing as well as consuming news, and many old-media companies have gained relevance in the age of new media. But it will take more.
Congress could change tax policy to remove barriers to philanthropies purchasing major news outlets. FCC policies, including rules against cross-ownership, could be reconceived. Antitrust laws could be revised to allow publications to band together to charge for content. The founders understood that writers should be compensated for their work and included the copyright clause in the Constitution. We need to be equally aggressive in finding new ways to protect and reward journalism's intellectual property.
Government action is no substitute for innovation or for fresh business models. Media owners, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, civic organizations, individual citizens and journalism schools all have a role play. So do the consumers of news who might be asked to emulate listeners to public radio and pay to support the newspapers they read for free on the Web. But, as Washington and .................http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=762305&category=OPINION
First published in print: Saturday, January 24, 2009
Despite Rex Smith's wishful thinking, the fate of newspapers is more a New Year's dissolution than resolution. His Jan. 3 column predicting that newspapers will survive through adaptation is sad, not because it is naïve, but because I wish it were true.
Last year, The New Yorker printed an extremely well-researched article about the fate of newspapers and gives them just about 20 more years before print is fini. Reality check: younger people don't read newspapers. As they age, they don't start reading newspapers. Older people, myself included, read newspapers.
In just about 20 years, there won't be enough older people alive to keep newspapers in print, no matter how much Smith feels he can adapt to the Internet Age.
Smith would better serve his readership and his industry by examining the potentially devastating effects of this. Alternative sources of news, such as the Internet, either come from well-staffed newspapers or do not provide thorough, in-depth information. This threatens all of us who want comprehensive news from which we form opinions. Even now, with print increasingly mimicking the Internet, we find ourselves in a world of "news" resembling more of an infomercial than fact.
Without facts readily accessible to the public, little things like democracy become as endangered as newspapers. There are ways we can assure access to an extensive, unbiased flow of information, but we're not going to succeed by denying the inevitable.
National Public Radio and the NY Times are laying off people? Boo-hoo. What's the problem? How come no one is mourning the loss of the whaling industry? The Gazetto refuses to get back to basics. Their only solution, like typical liberals, is raising prices not changing editorial bias.
I have no sympathy for the media what so ever. They abandoned what journalism was all about. They chose to walk lock step with the left. They chose to publicly support candidates. They chose to sensationalize stories with half truths. THEY CHOSE POORLY!
Why the heck do they think that people prefer to read the opinion section in the newspaper? Why do they think that people prefer to read blogs and message boards on the internet? In hopes of finding the truth for themselves cause they know they are NOT getting it from the media.
The readership didn't leave the media....the media left the readership!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
VIEWPOINT Newspapers might be an endangered species but they are essential to life
BY RUTH PETERSON For The Sunday Gazette
Ruth Peterson lives in Niskayuna. The Gazette encourages readers to submit material on local issues for the Sunday Opinion section.
Tony Soprano had to walk down the driveway to pick up his paper, but for most of us, the paper on the doorstep and steaming coffee in our cup spell the American morning. From comic strip to sit-com to real life, we equate the new day with these amenities. Can we continue to count on them? I was stretched out on the couch (it was afternoon) reading a slender little book titled simply “Isaac H. Bromley,” when I heard the announcement that the Chicago Tribune had filed for bankruptcy. The company, which also owns The Baltimore Sun, the Los Angeles Times, various cable companies and the Chicago Cubs baseball team, was $13 million in debt. On subsequent days, the paper’s business page carried further news about the failure. “With revenue plunging as readers and advertisers flee to the Web, many … companies have turned to selling off their buildings to raise money,” according to The Associated Press. The photo of the majestic Chicago Tribune Tower is captioned “one of the grandest newspaper buildings in America.” BACK TO BROMLEY Even before the financial crisis we’re now in, newspapers were suffering. All of which brings me back to Isaac H. Bromley. My neighbor, “Bud” Osborn, 90, had lent me the book written by his grandfather, Norris Osborn, in 1920. Born in 1860, Osborn started work as a reporter on the New Haven Register, becoming editor four years later. In 1907, he moved to the New Haven Journal-Courier, serving as editor until his death in 1932. He also contributed columns of a political nature to the New York Sunday Herald for 25 years. As a highly regarded Connecticut newspaper man, a fellow Yale graduate, protege and friend of Isaac H. Bromley, he was well qualifi ed to profile Bromley’s life. Bromley (1833-1899) is described in Wikipedia as an American lawyer, editor, politician, railroad director and possibly most notable, as a humorist. In February 1873, he joined the editorial staff of the New York Tribune. He was likened to Mark Twain, even having some of his quotes attributed to Twain. They “were alike in the originality of their daring and innocent irreverence.” He wielded power as a “defender of the truth and as a foe of sham and pretense.” Not bad objectives for the free press. Responding to an angry political candidate who blamed Bromley for his loss in an election, he said, “Why, my dear fellow, did you persist in parading in front of my gun?” Osborn’s book consists of recollections of the man, including many quotations from his editorials and the after-dinner speeches for which he was in great demand. Bromley was among the “seasoned veterans who presided at the city desks of the great dailies across our country.” The beauty of his language, the gentle humor, the restrained but incisive commentary are stunning. He had a witty pen and sometimes broke into verse. Above all, he was loyal to his country. In 1861, he wrote a letter to Jefferson Davis. It was a masterpiece of satire. He enumerated great moments in history and how we gather “relics” commemorating such events as the Magna Carta, Plymouth Rock and the Liberty Bell. He enclosed one such relic for Davis — a pen holder fashioned from a rafter in the roof under which was born another famous man, Benedict Arnold. Acknowledging the fun often displayed by certain writers (Carl Strock comes to mind), Bromley writes that journalism is pursued by gentlemen and that “whatever trifling they may indulge in when the occasion is not serious, they bring to the discussion of a really important affair in a great emergency, a catholicity and breadth of view, a freedom from narrowness and partisanship, and — if a hackneyed word may be allowed — a patriotism which at least deserves attention if it does not command the highest of praise.” Our times cry out for men and women who practice journalism with what Osborn calls a kind of “masterfulness which is of indispensable value in an editorial room crowded with men of exceptional talent. They react upon one another unconsciously, and the joint product from the printing press affects judgments and shapes attitudes . . .” Theirs is a persuasive broadmindedness, which avoids narrow ideologies, according to Osborn. Where I live, both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are available to us in our comfortable library, but most people here also avidly read the local papers. Where else could we find, in one medium, regional and local news of politics, business, education and the environment, sports, arts and entertainment, reviews of recent arts and sports events, church notices and yes, the obituaries Various strategies have been attempted to save failing newspapers — increasing circulation, raising revenue through increased advertising, printing fewer pages, cutting staff, or a combination of some or all of the above (The Gazette recently eliminated its TV book, and last week announced deep staff cuts, for example). One media expert even suggests eliminating advertising altogether and increasing the price of the paper. Would you pay more for an ad-free paper? I would. A certain Patty, whom ..............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar04100
Newspaper execs kick off campaign to hype industry BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Several newspaper executives launched a public relations campaign Monday to counter what they call “gloomand-doom” reports of the industry’s demise. Sure, they admit, times are tough. The economy is bad, the Internet has sucked away advertising dollars and people are losing jobs. But the 100 million people who read a newspaper the day after the Super Bowl outnumbered the TV audience for the game, the group said in an advertisement that appeared Monday in more than 300 daily newspapers, including The New York Times and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. With the ads, commentary pieces and a Web site, the industry is painting itself as a vital source of information and the best place for advertisers to sell anything from grapes to a house — not the dinosaur often portrayed in the media. “We are our own worst enemy. It’s like there’s a rule we have to beat ourselves up,” said Donna Barrett, a driving force behind the campaign, called the Newspaper Project. “We are still a dominant media, and we don’t give ourselves credit for that.” Barrett said the newspapers’ ad campaign was born out of the frustration of seeing a constant string of predictions that newspapers will go out of business before they fi gure out how retool operations and make a strong profit online. Lost on the masses, she said, is the fact that tens of millions of people read newspapers every day, online and in print.
Newspaper chain to cut 1,400 jobs NEW YORK — Newspaper publisher Gannett Co. plans to cut 1,400 jobs in the next few weeks, about 3 percent of the work force, as it faces a prolonged slump in advertising revenue. Bob Dickey, head of the company’s U.S. community publishing division, informed staff of the layoffs in a letter Wednesday. He told employees that “there have been some promising signs of a recovery, but the reality is the improvements are not broad-based and the economy continues to be fragile.” The majority of layoffs will come by July 9, he said. The move follows a 10 percent cut at Gannett in 2008, which left the company with about 41,500 employees. Gannett publishes USA Today, the largest newspaper by circulation in the U.S., along with dozens of other newspapers. Dickey’s memo did not mention USA Today, which is separate from the division he heads. A spokeswoman for Gannett did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Like the rest of its industry, the McLean, Va.-based company has seen advertising revenue wither in the face of the recession and competition from the Internet. Its publishing division reported a 34 percent drop in ad revenue in the first quarter, marking more than two straight years of declines.
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National Public Radio and the NY Times are laying off people? Boo-hoo. What's the problem? How come no one is mourning the loss of the whaling industry? The Gazetto refuses to get back to basics. Their only solution, like typical liberals, is raising prices not changing editorial bias. 
