Free Republic

Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C., the parent company of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com, has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection Sunday. The company says it is looking to restructure $390 million in debt and decided to pursue Bankruptcy Court following 11 months of negotiations with lenders. “This restructuring is focused solely on our debt, not our operations,” chief executive Brian Tierney told Philly.com. He said the filing would not affect the media company’s daily operations. Newspaper Guild president Dan Gross notified members about the filing in a letter. He asked members to stay calm and to still...

PHILADELPHIA — The owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday in an effort to restructure its debt load. Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC, is the second newspaper company in two days, and fourth in recent months, to seek bankruptcy protection. "This restructuring is focused solely on our debt, not our operations," chief executive officer Brian P. Tierney said in a statement. "Our operations are sound and profitable." The filing Sunday indicated the company has between $100 million and $500 million in assets and liabilities in the same...

Check out this very ugly chart: Shares of NYT (NYT) dropped 29 cents today to close at $3.77. The Sunday paper goes for $4 at the newsstand. Maybe they could save costs by printing the paper on their stock certificates.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's first two years in office have been called a time of milk and honey, when the resource-rich state was flush with wealth from record oil prices. The second half of her term isn't looking so rosy as Palin faces her first major financial challenge as governor. The rapid decline of oil prices has left the state in a looming budget crisis and a late-entrant in the national recession. And that could have political repercussions for the former Republican vice presidential hopeful, who has signaled an interest in a 2012 presidential run but...

The news is no longer news. It’s propaganda. It’s cheerleading for the new administration. It’s bull-roar. It’s false, fraudulent and biased. I’m talking about the major purveyors of news, the so-called mainstream media. I’m talking about The New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Post, ABC, CBS, MSNC, NBC, CNN, NPR, PBS, Time, Newsweek and all the rest. The mainstream media has descended to the level of Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister and Pravda, best known as the propaganda organ of the Communist Party. But this development in the mainstream media has critically important implications not only for...

A plan by Gov. Sarah Palin to save money by imposing a state employee hiring freeze is raising questions, but lawmakers are doing little to stop it. Palin made the surprise announcement in her State of the State speech Thursday, but offered few details at the time. Questions also abound about how many job openings will be affected, with two officials in Palin's administration providing conflicting numbers, and also if the state does in fact have a deficit as advertised.

The AP buried the information after the fifth paragraph, where it would not get picked up by tomorrow’s World News sections in your local newspaper, but they have independent confirmation that Hamas terrorists were firing from the UN school that got hit by Israeli tank fire yesterday. Israel’s military said its shelling at the school - the deadliest single episode since Israeli ground forces invaded Gaza on Saturday after a week of air bombardment - was a response to mortar fire from within the school and said Hamas militants were using civilians as cover. Two residents of the area who...

Newspapers are for sale across the country. National Public Radio and television news shows are laying off staff. The Tribune Co. (which owns this and other newspapers) is in bankruptcy. It's clear that journalism is in crisis, and in the current recession, things are likely to get much worse. That's alarming. A robust press is vital to our democracy. And while bloggers and other new-media news operations have enriched the public dialogue in important ways, their work still depends on the painstaking -- and expensive -- reporting supplied by traditional journalists. Some conclude from the recent dire reports about the...

Daniel White graduated from the University of Hartford majoring in Criminal Justice with minors in Sociology and English. He currently serves as Secretary/Treasurer of Ohioans For Concealed Carry and is a NRA Training Counselor. Why bother reporting something you disagree with? Earlier this week, I wrote an article for the OFCC website about a Morning Journal story covering the "Take Back Elyria" event held this past Sunday. In it, I wondered about the lack of mention of the right to use firearms for self defense when the whole point of the event was described as "dedicated to teaching residents how...

Rocky Mountain News owner E.W. Scripps Co. said Wednesday it will accept bids for the struggling newspaper through the close of business Friday. Scripps then will review any offers "as quickly as possible, but there's no specific timetable for completing that process," spokesman Tim King said. Wednesday's announcement, made among increasing speculation about the future of the News, marks the first time that Scripps has set a specific deadline for dealing with the 150-year-old newspaper. The Cincinnati-based media company had said last month that it would try to sell the News through mid-January, at which time it would explore other...

The progression of bad newspaper news is not surprising, but the lack of concern is mystifying and frightening. Hirschhorn wrote this: The collapse of daily print journalism will mean many things……. And it will seriously damage the press’s ability to serve as a bulwark of democracy.” Ya think? Hirschhorn tossed off in one dismissive sentence one of the most crucial potential developments for journalism and democracy since the First Amendment. I think brass bands are required to force a focus on the democratic implications of what’s happening. Despite the general lack of debate and concern about the subject, I was...

Connecticut is considering a bailout for local papers. But government assistance always comes with a catch. In the case of government aid of newspapers, it will destroy the ability of those papers to function as watchdogs. As journalism professor Paul Janensch told Reuters, “You can’t expect a watchdog to bite the hand that feeds it.” That’s why the news out of Connecticut is very disturbing. Two small-town papers have been in danger of being shut down because of decreasing revenue and poor management decisions. Journal Register Corp. recently had to sell the two papers, The Bristol Press and The (New...

Virtually all the predictions about the death of old media have assumed a comfortingly long time frame for the end of print . . . But what if the old media dies much more quickly? What if a hurricane comes along and obliterates the dunes entirely? Specifically, what if The New York Times goes out of business—like, this May? It’s certainly plausible. -- End Times, by Michael Hirschorn, The Atlantic, January/February 2009 [emphasis added] The prospect of the disappearance of the New York Times within a matter of months will bring wildly varying reactions in different quarters. Those gleefully anticipating...

<p>The nation's top selling conservative author has been banned from appear on NBC, insiders tell the DRUDGE REPORT, banned for life! MORE...</p>

Edward McClelland: Burris hasn't been accused of violating any standard of ethical conduct. It's guilt by association with Blagojevich. If Blagojevich is smart, he'll disappear and let this become about Roland Burris, a 71-year-old with an honest record as a public servant, the son of a railroad worker who grew up in a small town in central Illinois, and got started in politics by integrating the public pool. It's tough to be against a senator like that.

Surpassed in convenience and economy by online content, printed magazines and newspapers will dry up in the next decade. Pro or con? snip Pro: Disappearing Ink by Jeff Jarvis, Buzzmachine.com Whether or not print dies, its business model will. Physical wares—newspapers, books, magazines, discs—will no longer be the primary or most profitable means of delivering and interacting with media: news, fact, entertainment, or education. snip Con: The Power of Print by Chris Tolles, Topix Given that I run an online-only news site here in Silicon Valley, you’d think I’d be arguing that print is already dead. But the technology business...

In the worst year in history for publishers, newspaper shares dropped an average of 83.3% in 2008, wiping out $64.5 billion in market value in just 12 months. Although things were tough for all sorts of businesses in the face of the worst economic slump since the 1930s, the decline among the newspaper shares last year was more than twice as deep as the 38.5% drop suffered by the Standard and Poor’s average of 500 stocks. The debacle was widespread and thoroughgoing, as detailed below. Here are some highlights from the data: :: The shares of eight of the 14...

File this one under the "I should've seen this coming" category; Connecticut State Representative Frank Nicastro (D-Bristol/Forestville) is petitioning the Connecticut state government to bailout his local newspapers, the Bristol Press and the New Britain Herald. This is the first such effort and it is strictly a local effort by Representative Nicastro and some of his fellow state legislators, but I predict that it won't be the last. With all of the large Liberal newspapers now struggling to survive due to dire reductions in revenue and readership, watch for a push from Democrats in Congress to follow suit.

Connecticut lawmaker Frank Nicastro sees saving the local newspaper as his duty. But others think he and his colleagues are setting a worrisome precedent for government involvement in the U.S. press. Nicastro represents Connecticut's 79th assembly district, which includes Bristol, a city of about 61,000 people outside Hartford, the state capital. Its paper, The Bristol Press, may fold within days, along with The Herald in nearby New Britain. That is because publisher Journal Register, in danger of being crushed under hundreds of millions of dollars of debt, says it cannot afford to keep them open anymore. Nicastro and fellow legislators...

mere month ago this idea was a joke. The joke could be on us. Government aid could save U.S. newspapers, spark debate NEW YORK (Reuters) - Connecticut lawmaker Frank Nicastro sees saving the local newspaper as his duty. But others think he and his colleagues are setting a worrisome precedent for government involvement in the U.S. press. Nicastro represents Connecticut's 79th assembly district, which includes Bristol, a city of about 61,000 people outside Hartford, the state capital. Its paper, The Bristol Press, may fold within days, along with The Herald in nearby New Britain. That is because publisher Journal Register,...