Tribune receives $300 million loan (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Variety ^ | July 3, 2008 | CYNTHIA LITTLETON

[abb]

On the heels of announcing steep layoffs at the Los Angeles Times, Tribune Co. said Thursday it had arranged a $300 million bank loan with Barclays Bank, most of which would be used to pay off part of an existing loan.

The Barclays transaction was described as an “asset-backed commercial paper facility,” meaning it’s backed by accounts receivable money that Tribune is owed.

The arrangement with Barclays allows Tribune to get a cash infusion pronto without having to wait for those bills to come due. Still, it’s a sign of the cash crunch at the debt-laden Chicago-based newspaper and TV station owner. The L.A. Times jolted the media biz last Wednesday in confirming that the newspaper would shed 250 jobs, 150 of them in the newsroom, and reduce the size of the paper by 15% as a result of the weak California economy and plunging ad revenue. (Daily Variety, July 3).

Tribune said it would use about $225 million of the Barclays loan to pay off part of one of its existing loans that has a balance of $1.4 billion and is due to be repaid in full by June 2009. According to Tribune’s first-quarter filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, $650 million of that loan is due to be repaid in early December.

The buyout of Tribune last December by real estate mogul Sam Zell under an employee-ownership structure left the company with more than $12 billion in debt.

[abb]

Using the credit card to pay the house note...

[abb]

ping

[stuartcr]

Sounds like congress.

[Steely Tom]

At 5.00%, that’s more than $41K per day, seven days a week. Interest only.

[abb]

http://eurekareporter.com/article/080705-as-it-stands-outsourcing-newspapers-is-offensive
As it stands: Outsourcing newspapers is offensive

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080706/FREE/25370774/1008/toc
Egos keep newspaper presses rolling
Local moguls spend millions even as business turns south

http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13456
Topic: Memos Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 7/7/2008 9:16:43 AM
Title: MediaNews execs address concerns
Posted By: Jim Romenesko

July 3, 2008
TO: MediaNews Group Employees
FROM: Jody Lodovic/Dean Singleton
RE: RECENT PRESS

Many of you have probably heard or read the recent negative press surrounding the newspaper industry, including MediaNews Group. The focus on MediaNews Group was prompted by a recent downgrade by Standard & Poors. Given the speculation and innuendo contained in recent stories, we wanted to provide as much clarity to each of you as possible.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=422eafd0-db37-474b-a5fd-f230c887371a&&Headline=US+papers%2c+Indian+copy+editors
US papers, Indian copy editors

http://www.oberjuerge.com/?p=239
L.A. Times Staff Cuts, and Making Do with 700

http://www.poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13457
Topic: Letters Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 7/7/2008 10:11:31 AM
Title: The Zell era
Posted By: Jim Romenesko

From GARY DRETZKA: Tribune papers still make money ... lots of it. Now that the company has gone private, it isn’t likely we’ll ever know how much or how little. We can only take the word of company officials for how desperate the situation really is. The same applies to customer responses to redesigns and page loss. (Mr. Abrams declared that a mere eight Orlandians canceled their subscriptions following the redesign. So be it.)

[abb]

http://www.contentbridges.com/2008/07/7-dirty-words-y.html
7 Dirty Words You Can’t Say In Newspaper Buildings

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2008/07/farewell_at_the_miami_herald.php
Farewell At The Miami Herald

[Cheburashka]

I'm still waiting for the list of staff cuts at the Chicago Tribune. I will be so disappointed if it doesn't include Eric Zorn.

Come on Sam, the useless eaters aren't just in Los Angeles and Florida.

[ClearCase_guy]

Sounds like congress.

Sounds like Michael Jackson and his preferred method of keeping his own financial ship afloat.

[abb]

“I love the smell of burning Napalm in the morning...”

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=85840

Enterprise: Into the Red, Newspapers Face Collapse

by Erik Sass, Monday, Jul 7, 2008 9:56 AM ET

Virtually all the nation’s major newspaper publishers—Tribune, McClatchy, PMH—are in financial trouble, stuck in a morass of debt with barely enough cash to make scheduled payments. In fact, some have already missed payments—but even for those that remain solvent, a disturbing scenario lies ahead. With revenue declines accelerating, once-serviceable levels of debt may suddenly become crushing. Right now, all eyes are on Tribune Co., which carries a vast debt of almost $12.8 billion, about two-thirds incurred through its recent acquisition by Sam Zell. Servicing the debt requires payments of around $1 billion in 2008, and so far, Zell has made ends meet through asset sales and an aggressive cost-cutting strategy.

snip

[abb]

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Research_25/DRVs_giving_broadcast_more_gray_hairs.asp

DVRs giving
broadcast more gray hairs

Age of audience viewing shows live rises to 50

By Kevin Downey
Jul 7, 2008

Suddenly the audience watching broadcast television is looking a lot older.

A new study reports that when it comes to live viewing—folks watching shows as they air—the median viewer age has climbed to 50. That’s one year older than the top end of the demographic most targeted by advertisers, adults 18-49.

The median age of the broadcast audience has been trending up for years. What’s kicked it up is the increasing use of DVRs, which are favored by younger viewers. Fewer young people are watching shows as they air, lifting the median age of the network’s live-only audience.

This is a problem for advertisers on two levels. One of course is the aging of the live viewing audience.

The other is that those younger DVR viewers have the ability to zap through ads on the shows they’ve recorded for playback. Advertisers don’t know whether their ads are being seen or not.

snip

[Dilbert San Diego]

Well, it’s a tough situation. Newspaper circulation is declining, so it’s probably unrealistic for them to sell more papers. Ad revenues are down for newspapers as so much advertising is going to sites such as Craig’s List.

The handwriting is on the wall for newspapers. The newspapers will see their circulations continue to decline. They will continue to lay off staff, which in turn will mean there will be less significant news in the paper, with fewer reporters reporting, which in turn may cause more people to cancel subscriptions or not buy the paper. It’s a downward spiral. How can they pay off $12 billion in debt?

[abb]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003825018

‘Times-Picayune’ Cuts Most Mississippi Circulation

By Joe Strupp

Published: July 07, 2008 12:15 PM ET

NEW YORK The Times-Picayune of New Orleans has eliminated most of its circulation in neighboring Mississippi, according to Circulation Director Phil Ehrhardt, who said the cutback amounts to some 3,000 subscription and single-copy sales.

He said only some 700 copies are still being distributed in Picayune, Miss., noting that much of the Mississippi distribution lost from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 had not returned.

“It did not make sense to keep going there,” he said about the Mississippi readership. “It is a little bit of home delivery, but mostly single copy.”

Single-copy sales make up about 16% of the Times-Picayune’s overall circulation, Ehrhardt said. The total daily circulation of the paper, which was actually up slightly in the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations FAS-FAX report, is at 179,834 for the six months ending March 31, 2008.

“The storm took a lot of the Mississippi distribution away,” he added, saying rising gas prices were not the chief culprit. “It did not come back on the Gulf Coast and it has been [nearly] three years.”

.

Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is a senior editor at E&P.

[KarlInOhio]

With equal financial planning, I'm going to lend a wino $100 to buy more Thunderbird, but I get first claim on his begging income.

[Prole]

How can they pay off $12 billion in debt?

These Obamabots hopefully won't be able to.

They will all eat their just desserts, and end up in the unemployment lines.

The newspaper industry represents another layer of the manipulative and deceptive media machine, and they deserve this disaster.

The scary part is the democrats might steal taxpayer dollars to keep their propaganda paperboys in business.

[abb]

The scary part is the democrats might steal taxpayer dollars to keep their propaganda paperboys in business.

"Journalism Professors" have already floated that idea.

[MovementConservative]

Maybe Sam Zell needs to consider pumping some of his own money into the company to keep it running. I actually find myself sympathetic to all those employees who’s pension plan may go up in smoke thanks to the way Zell was able to finance the purchase of the Tribune. The 300 mil Zell stands to lose will barely affect his lifestyle, the employees of the company will be hosed.

[Prole]

The Times-Picayune's political correctness is why that rag needs to die off as well.

Most of their "crime" entries alert locals to be on the lookout for a "man in a hat."

Never once do I read about the suspect's race, hairstyle, hairlength, eye color, teeth arrangement or anything else relevant to the criminal's description.

Until they start describing what criminals look like, they will never be informing the public accurately.

[Prole]

How else would the communists at NPR receive their paychecks?

In the real world, NPR would have been cancelled a long time ago.

But no, the communists just stick it to the taxpayer to pay for the democrat propaganda machine.

[abb]

Maybe Sam Zell needs to consider pumping some of his own money into the company to keep it running. I actually find myself sympathetic to all those employees who’s pension plan may go up in smoke thanks to the way Zell was able to finance the purchase of the Tribune. The 300 mil Zell stands to lose will barely affect his lifestyle, the employees of the company will be hosed.

When the Zell deal took place, I actually spoke on the phone to a LATimes reporter and a WSJ reporter about this very issue. Other than some nebulous remarks that the deal looked kinda hinky, they showed little interest in pursuing that angle. Once that money is vaporized, you can be sure they'll write about it then...

[abb]

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6575706.html

Layoffs Keep Coming
By Michael Malone — Broadcasting & Cable, 7/7/2008

Summertime hasn’t been too hot for employees at television stations. Layoffs have been rampant the past few weeks, and are expected to continue amidst a dim economic forecast.

Mid-June saw a 7.5% staff reduction across the Newport Television stations, which meant about 162 casualties among the 56 outlets. Then WRCB Chattanooga, owned by Sarkes Tarzian, eliminated 10 jobs. “We’re reorganizing our maintenance and production departments in recognition of the fact that so much broadcasting equipment has become computerized,” president and general manager Tom Tolar explains.

Next was Tribune’s KTLA, which laid off eight. “We’re reconfiguring how we do things,” says KTLA VP of Programming and Marketing John Moczulski. “We’re evaluating what our goals are and what the jobs are.”

Six were axed last week at Raycom’s Cleveland duopoly, WOIO and WUAB, and eight at NBC Local Media’s KNTV San Jose (including four on-air positions). Media General’s WFLA Tampa will reportedly be 10 jobs lighter by the end of the year.

Earlier in the month, Meredith Corp. clipped 120 jobs, mostly on the publishing side. Media General has cut 11% since January 2007, Barrington Broadcasting vowed to make do with 8% fewer employees, Young Broadcasting is cutting 11%, and CBS trimmed some 120 at its O&Os in late March.

“Virtually every group is rethinking and reengineering what they do to create content in the multiplatform world. The infrastructure has to change when you’re doing business in different ways,” says Frank N. Magid TV President Steve Ridge.

While many would classify the layoffs as cutting into bone, insiders say the reductions are far from over—especially with the economic picture remaining dark. “People are realizing this is not going to be the year everyone thought it was going to be,” says SmithGeiger Senior VP Mark Toney. “I think almost everyone’s vulnerable to it.”

[MovementConservative]

Interesting to see McClatchy and Gannett have resumed their downward plummets on the Dow. I think this is at least the 3rd straight day of new 52 week lows for both companies. McClatchy most likely will be under $5 a share by the end of the week. De-listing in it's near future?

http://quote.morningstar.com/Quote/Quote.aspx?ticker=MNI

[Clay Moore]

[abb]

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0739913420080707?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

TV and film business facing dark days, analyst warns

[abb]

http://crainsdetroit.com/article/20080707/SUB/807070321/1069

More bad news for The News
Debt rating downgrade, more buyouts keep paper struggling

By Bill Shea

The Detroit News was hit with the announcement of another round of buyouts last week and saw its parent company’s debt rating downgraded last month amid dire predictions from Wall Street, but it’s far too soon to write the newspaper off.

That’s the view of newspaper industry observers, who caution that the plug still could be pulled at some point on Detroit’s second-largest newspaper by its corporate parent, Denver-based MediaNews Group, or stepparent Gannett Co. Inc.

snip

[xDGx]

Check this out:

http://www.aboutbarclays.com/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=34&NewsAreaID=137

The head of Barclays is a BBC director.

Giving a little help to their media brethren in the states... wise investment or a little ‘help’ from a kindred spirit? $5 says this ‘loan’ is written off as NFG within 5 years.

btw, Barclays has sucked vs. the FTSE

http://miranda.hemscott.com/servlet/HsPublic?context=ir.access&ir_client_id=4&ir_option=SS_GRAPHS&yaxisLocation=right&period=5Y&comparisons=100@IT

[Milhous]

My post modern television world sans scheduled urgency enables me to act just like a Hollywood bigshot by reading scripts to find worthy shows.

[Borges]

I just hope it doesn’t include John Von Rhein.

[Milhous]

Nobody's sure what the Dolans will do with their first newspaper, but they have called Newsday a good strategic fit with their cable business.

It turns out that FReepers with a clue believe that the Dolans will lose money with their first newspaper.

[abb]

New tagline. What do you think?

[abb]

Lol. Maybe this one will do better.

[Milhous]

Watergate was a Drive-By Media coup d'etat.

Poetic justice for partisan hacks such as Dan Ra^ther and Bob Woodword to experience the feeling of living out their remaining days in disgrace while mass media experiences how it feels to get taken out.

---

"Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized. In the first it is ridiculed, in the second it is violently opposed, in the third it is regarded as self-evident." - Arthur Schopenhauer

The IOC reveals their inner fascist by censoring free speech.

Unfortunately, coverage of the 2008 Olympics looks like it will largely be missing the new media viewpoint that could have made the event a lot more compelling to people around the world. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has effectively banned athletes from audio and video podcasting, photoblogging and vlogging their personal takes on the event.

[abb]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-cooper-frey7-2008jul07,0,5543175,full.story

What’s eating the L.A. Times?
Marc Cooper links the paper’s recent downsizing to Tribune Co. boss Sam Zell’s desire for high profit margins. Patrick Frey says that The Times has a credibility problem it cannot blame on Tribune.

[abb]

http://www.poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13459

Topic: Memos Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 7/7/2008 3:44:33 PM
Title: Philly papers begin combining functions
Posted By: Jim Romenesko

From: [Philadelphia Daily News sports editor] McLoone, Pat
Sent: Mon 7/7/2008 3:30 PM
To: Daily News
Subject: combining DN and Inquirer functions

The news of the combining of functions (photo, copy desk) for the Daily News and Inquirer came quickly and its implementation is coming quickly as well. For instance, the Inquirer will shoot the Phillies game tonight ... for both papers.

We realize that might leave you with questions and concerns, so please don’t hesitate to talk to me, Michelle or Mike Days.

We don’t have all the answers since a lot of this is still in formative stages but we will try to answer what we can.

Thank you.

[Milhous]

Marc Cooper ought to just belly up to the bar and face that fact that America chooses to abort mass media.

[Tribune7]

ping

[abb]

Hopefully, they’ve dawdled enough that they won’t be able to salvage either the Inky or the Daily News and they’ll both go under.

[Tribune7]

I give them both less than two years.

[abb]

I give them both less than two years.

They'll combine and wind up as a twice weekly 'shopper.'

[Tribune7]

They'll combine and wind up as a twice weekly 'shopper.'

LOL. I might actually read it in that case.

[abb]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003825193

GateHouse Stock Hits All-Time Low On 14% Price Swoon

By Mark Fitzgerald

Published: July 07, 2008 5:43 PM ET

CHICAGO Stock in one-time Wall Street darling GateHouse Media Inc. fell to an all-time low following a 14.1% price tumble Monday.

There were no announcements, regulatory filings, or analyst notes that might explain the drop of 35 cents to GateHouse’s (NYSE: GHS) close of $2.12. Coming into Monday’s session, the once high-flying stock had a 52-week trading range of $2.32 to $19.10.

On a generally mixed day for the newspaper sector, two other companies also scraped new 52-week lows.

Lee Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: LEE) closed at $3.15, off 11 cents, or 3.37. Its previous trading range had been $3.19 to $21.48.

Media General Inc. (NYSE: MEG) fell 39 cents, or 3.44, to establish a 52-week low of $10.94. It had traded between $11.20 and $34.62.

Investors through the day hammered The McClatchy Co.. down as much as 6%, but the stock rebounded to end unchanged at $5.47.

[Grampa Dave]

“GateHouse Stock Hits All-Time Low On 14% Price Swoon

By Mark Fitzgerald

Published: July 07, 2008 5:43 PM ET

CHICAGO Stock in one-time Wall Street darling GateHouse Media Inc. fell to an all-time low following a 14.1% price tumble Monday.

There were no announcements, regulatory filings, or analyst notes that might explain the drop of 35 cents to GateHouse’s (NYSE: GHS) close of $2.12. “

If this trend keeps up, we can have a small fund raiser, buy them out and expand FR.

Naah, they are mortally wounded and will be going into rigor anyday.

[Milhous]

They'll combine and wind up as a twice weekly 'shopper.'

The probable fate of most fishwrap IMHO. A "shopper" sans supposed investigative journalism yet still carrying Creator's Syndicate content, obits, government notices, police blotter, and the like. Fishwrap ought to become very profitable after it dumps all its political hacks posing as journalists. Silicon Alley Insider concurs with me that investors looking to profit need to pickup shares as fishwrap reaches its inflection point. (You can obtain the exact date from your fortune teller. LOL.)

It's getting hard to find people to buy newspaper companies. "Newsosaur" Alan Mutter:

If this is a bad time to be the in the newspaper business, it is a worse time to be trying to sell a publishing company. ...

Traditionally, articles like this also signal that someone savvy, ballsy investor is indeed getting ready to buy a bunch of newspapers at deflated prices, and in retrospect we'll slap our heads looking at a missed buying opportunity. Anyone?

[Grampa Dave]

“The probable fate of most fishwrap IMHO. A “shopper” sans supposed investigative journalism yet still carrying Creator’s Syndicate content, obits, government notices, police blotter, and the like. Fishwrap ought to become very profitable after it dumps all its political hacks posing as journalists. Silicon Alley Insider concurs with me that investors looking to profit need to pickup shares as fishwrap reaches its inflection point. (You can obtain the exact date from your fortune teller. LOL.)”

This is happening on the Left Coast particuliarly in the newer metro areas where the big left wing fishwraps have little if any power.

[abb]

I’m wondering why we read and post what Alan Mutter has to say. In one of his posts several days ago he disclosed ownership in newspaper stocks - McClatchy was one of them. Apparently he has ridden those investments all the way down.

If this guy is so dumb to do that in the face of what all has gone on over the past two or three years (and all he had to do was lurk right here on FRee Republic), he’s too dumb to dispense advice on much of anything.

[Grampa Dave]

“I’m wondering why we read and post what Alan Mutter has to say. In one of his posts several days ago he disclosed ownership in newspaper stocks - McClatchy was one of them. Apparently he has ridden those investments all the way down.”

These so called experts, commentators and listen me people need to be held and monitored re full disclosure re stock owned, pending short sells and buys, and what political party they belong to.

[abb]

They’re beginning to search the sofa cushions for spare change.

McClatchy Stake In ShopLocal Goes For Loss, At $7.9 Million

By E&P Staff

Published: July 08, 2008 11:55 AM ET

CHICAGO The McClatchy Co. said Tuesday that it sold its 15% stake in ShopLocal, the local shopping Web site, to Gannett Co. for $7.875 million, which it used to pay down debt.

As recently as March, McClatchy’s stake in the business had been valued at $11.13 million.

As previously reported, Gannett has bought out, in separate transactions, all of ShopLocal from McClatchy and Tribune Co. Gannett and Tribune had both held a 42.5%.

McClatchy acquired a 33% stake in ShopLocal when it acquired Knight Ridder Inc. in June 2006. Two months later, it sold 18.3% to Gannett and Tribune, under terms of a change in ownership contract.

“Given our small ownership interest in ShopLocal and the ability to realize the benefit of a tax loss, it made sense to monetize our interest,” McClatchy CFO Pat Talamantes said in a statement.

“As a result of the sale, we will reduce the carrying value of ShopLocal to the sales price and will record a charge of approximately $3 million in our second quarter results,” he added. “The proceeds from the sale were used to reduce debt immediately and the tax benefit is expected to result in cash tax savings of approximately $5.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2008.”

McClatchy newspapers will continue to participate in ShopLocal, which essentially offers newspaper retail ad coupons online.

Gannett said it would combine ShopLocal to work in conjunction with its PointRoll business “to create ads that dynamically connect retail advertisers and consumers, online and in the store.”

Gannett, Tribune, and McClatchy remain partners in a number of ventures, including CareerBuilder, Classified Ventures and Topix.net. Tribune and Gannett also jointly own Metromix, a national network of local entertainment Web sites, and are partners in quadrantOne, an online advertising venture.

E&P Staff (letters@editorandpublisher.com)

Links referenced within this article

letters@editorandpublisher.com
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/mailto: href=”mailto:letters@editorandpublisher.com”>letters@editorandpublisher.com

Find this article at:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003825401

[abb]

Betcha the old GraveDancer plans on using the pension money as a backstop for whatever he personally put up and it all won’t cost him a dime.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The scary part is the democrats might steal taxpayer dollars to keep their propaganda paperboys in business.

"Journalism Professors" have already floated that idea.

Well of course, journalists are America's premiere self-pleaders. They style themselves "the press" - just as if book publishers were not part of the press. And as if broadcast journalism were part of the press.

The members of "the press" of the founding generation were zealously independent of each other, whereas Associated Press journalism is all of a piece (all "objective," don't you know). And members of "the press" of the founding generation correspondingly had no use for according "objectivity" to their ideological competitors.

If you consider that the Associated Press was found to be a monopoly all the way back in 1945, Internet bloggers and forum founders - e.g., Jim Robinson - are a lot more qualified to be styled "the press" under the intent of the First Amendment than The New York Times or The Washington Post are.

[abb]

This one jumped out almost a year ago.

http://www.cjr.org/feature/the_uncle_sam_solution.php?page=all
The Uncle Sam Solution
Can the government help the press? Should it?