Monday, December 08, 2008

Chicago Tribune Files For Bankruptcy!

Want another sign of a real economic crisis in this country? The venerable Chicago Tribune has filed for bankruptcy. Here is the news straight from the horses mouth:

Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today in Delaware so it can restructure its debt.

The Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field, which Tribune Co. has on the auction block, are not part of the filing. The company said it has sufficient cash to continue to operate its media businesses, including publishing its newspapers and running its television stations and interactive properties, without interruption.

Chicago-based Tribune Co. had more than enough cash on hand to make a payment of $70 million due today on money borrowed before Zell's deal, but it was unable to convince lenders to embrace a broader restructuring of its debt.

Much of its debt was incurred last year when real estate magnate Sam Zell took the company private last December. It has repaid about $1 billion of its senior credit facility since then. But the situation at Tribune Co., which has suffered from industry-wide declines in advertising revenue that have eroded its cash flow since the deal was done, is emblematic of the squeeze felt throughout the media business overall, and newspaper companies in particular.

2 comments:

Raymond said...

I see jobs in advertising, media, publishing and journalism posted on popular job sites -

http://www.linkedin.com (networking)
http://www.indeed.com (aggregated listings)
http://www.realmatch.com (matches you to the perfect job)

If tribune goes under, the tribune folks will get new jobs.

Hardy Haberman said...

I don't the Trib will disappear, I think it will reorganize. There may be some cuts but the problem was Zell got overextended other areas and when the Trib came up short he didn't have the float.

About those jobs...right now there are a dozen qualified people for every opening. Just went trough that myself and it took almost a year to find a steady gig, and its only contract for now.