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US media giant Tribune Co. files for bankruptcy
AFP - Tuesday, December 9
CHICAGO (AFP) - - Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times and other leading US newspapers, filed for bankruptcy Monday in the latest blow to the struggling newspaper industry.
The Chicago-based media giant said that it was forced to seek bankruptcy protection because of a sharp drop in revenue and a heavy debt load but has enough cash to sustain operations while it restructures.
It said the Chicago Cubs baseball franchise, including iconic stadium Wrigley Field, is not included in the Chapter 11 filing, which protects the company from its creditors while it restructures, and that the Tribune would continue to try to find a buyer for the team.
In a statement, the Tribune said its newspapers, television stations and interactive properties will continue to operate during the reorganization and that it "has sufficient cash to do so."
"This restructuring focuses on our debt, not on our operations," said Tribune chairman and chief executive Sam Zell.
"This restructuring will bring the level of our debt in line with current economic realities and will take pressure off our operations, so we can continue to work toward our vision of creating a sustainable, cutting-edge media company," he added.
The Tribune Co. is the second largest US newspaper publisher in terms of revenue and the third in terms of circulation.
Besides the Los Angeles Times it owns the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel, Hartford Courant and several other papers. It operates 23 television stations.
According to media reports, the Tribune is carrying some 12 billion dollars in debt and cash flow is not enough to cover one billion dollars in interest payments due this year. A 512-million-dollar debt payment is also due in June.
Zell, a Chicago real-estate titan, led the 2007 private equity buyout of Tribune Co., estimated at the time to be worth 13 billion dollars including debt.
The Tribune said that in the year since it went private it has repaid approximately one billion dollars of its senior credit facility and has been "rewriting the business model for its media assets."
"Over the last year, we have made significant progress internally on transitioning Tribune into an entrepreneurial company that pursues innovation and stronger ways of serving our customers," Zell said.
"Unfortunately, at the same time, factors beyond our control have created a perfect storm -- a precipitous decline in revenue and a tough economy coupled with a credit crisis that makes it extremely difficult to support our debt."
Like many US newspapers, the Tribune has been grappling with declining circulation, a loss of readership to online media, and a steep drop in print advertising revenue.
The New York Times reported last week that another debt-ridden major US newspaper chain, the McClatchy Co., is seeking to sell one of its flagship newspapers, The Miami Herald.
And the New York Times itself has not been immune to the crisis gripping the newspaper industry.
The paper reported Monday that the New York Times Co. plans to borrow up to 225 million dollars against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building to ease a potential cash flow squeeze.
James Follo, the Times's chief financial officer, told the Times a real estate firm has been engaged to act as its agent to secure financing, either in the form of a mortgage or a sale-leaseback arrangement.
Tribune Co. reported a loss of 124 million dollars in the third quarter compared with a net profit of 84 million dollars a year earlier.
In May, it sold its stake in the New York newspaper Newsday to cable operator Cablevision for 650 million dollars.
The Chicago firm traces its history to 1847 with the birth of the Chicago Tribune. It became a publicly traded company only in 1983.
In 2000, the Tribune bought the Times-Mirror group, including the flagship Los Angeles Times, for 8.3 billion dollars in what was then the largest acquisition ever in the US newspaper industry.
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