Moody's cuts Belo debt to junk, may cut again (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Reuters ^ | October 17 2007

[Milhous]

NEW YORK, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service on Wednesday cut its ratings on Belo Corp (BLC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) into junk territory, and said it may cut them again, citing the newspaper publisher's limited ability to improve free cash flow in a challenging environment for newspapers.

Belo's use of a bank facility with a material adverse change (MAC) clause to pay out a maturing bond issue is also consistent with a junk-rated company, Moody's said in a statement.

Moody's cut Belo's senior unsecured debt one notch to "Ba1," one level below investment grade, from "Baa3."

"The long-term ratings remain on review for downgrade based on Moody's ongoing evaluation of Belo's proposed spin-off of the newspaper operations and the operating and financial strategies for the residual broadcast properties upon completion of the spin-off," Moody's said.

Belo said earlier this month it will spin off its newspapers into a new company called A.H. Belo Corp. For details, see [ID:nN01267319]

[Milhous]

ping

[golfisnr1]

CBS in St Louis.

[Wallace T.]

The core business of Belo is The Dallas Morning News, which was a formerly conservative paper that has become another liberal rag, as happened with the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, etc. Interestingly enough, the descendants of the founding families retain control, unlike the case with many other papers. The current owners are trust fund liberals.

[Bender2]

After The Dallas Times Herald folded, I was a subscriber to The Dallas Morning News as it was the only newspaper in Dallas. Years ago, when it started just reprinting verbatim what the NYT and WashPost reported, I dropped my subscription.

Nowadays, I don't even occasionally go to the on-line DMN to read about the Cowboys as the Cowboy's own web-page, NFL.Com, ESPN.Com and the on-line Fort Worth Star Telegram sports section get my main sports reading. My international/national news reading comes from FR, Drudge, The Washington Times and Breitbart.Com

Bye-bye you liberal rags. Who needs you bastards!

BTW True, run over and pee on the doorstep of the NYT for me--

[TrueKnightGalahad]

BTW True, run over and pee on the doorstep of the NYT for me.

I do it every morning :-) but in your honor I'll have a few extra beers and give them a double-dose! Haven't subscribed to Pravda the NYT for more than a decade; still miss their daily crossword puzzles, though, as I had an ongoing contest with myself to see how much under 10 minutes I could finish them.