Sunday, December 07, 2008

Old media has died!

LA Times owner may file for bankruptcy:

Tribune Co. is preparing for a possible filing for bankruptcy-court protection as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter, in another sign of trouble for the newspaper industry.

In recent days, as Tribune continued talks with lenders to restructure its debt, the newspaper-and-television concern hired Lazard Ltd. as its financial adviser, as well as legal counsel for a possible trip through bankruptcy court, according to people familiar with the matter.

A Tribune spokesman said the company doesn't comment on rumors or speculation. Tribune owns eight major daily newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and ...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

There has been an increase of money availability to everyone known as bailout spillover. Due to recession there is increased funding for all types of grants. Even lenders are bending over backwards to bail you out too. Regardless of statistics, there is people getting tons of cheap money for personal use, investments,start businesses, buy homes, pay off debt, and more. Bailout is for YOU

Rob Dawg said...

Sadly the LATimes is still wickedly profitable despite the advertising collapse to date. I expect this to go away very quickly but if you recall I said at the time Zell was purchasing the CSTimes in great part in anticipation of selling the LAT real estate for billions.

Lander said...

Peter Viles made it out just in time!

Bakersfield Bubble said...

He sure did! I sure hope he has already cashed his last check!



Rob - some details on the bk filing:

$13 billion of debt and $7 billion in assets.


http://www.laobserved.com/biz/2008/12/why_tribune_filed.php

Rob Dawg said...

BB,

IIRC Zell slyly thought the LATimes property downtown was worth $3 billion itself. That's was his failure.

Bakersfield Bubble said...

Yes...CRE over estimates...the MSM will be singing this song in a year.

Anonymous said...

Ouch... another liberal propaganda tool goes under. No sweat! B. Millhouse Obama will save them too on taxpayers' expense. :)

Here are some reasons:
1) L.A. Times was a monopoly, therefore didn't have any clue about the competition from the new media. Having a liberal mentality doesn't help either;
2) Being a liberal paper it alienated half of its potential customers. Its called dumb.
3) Its cheaper to advertise on the net.

I say bye-bye...

Anonymous said...

I've been a newspaper columnist for over a decade. I know this industry. It is crushingly politically correct, and anyone who wants to keep a job must be a boot-licker of the lowest order. Hillary is a barrel of lighthearted mirth compared to the angry feminists and the beard-scratching metrosexuals creeps who serve as editors.

As a result, the gray mush of "inoffensive" prose and thinly veiled socialist propaganda is pretty much unreadable by anyone with a three-digit IQ. The style is stilted. The credibility is nil.

There are a few papers that have maintained some degree of quality and integrity (Las Vegas Review Journal; Orange County Register) but they are the exceptions that prove the rule.

Bakersfield's Californian is a pathetic rag.

The newspapers blame the Internet for their demise, but their bad content and lack of credibility are the real reason that they've lost readers and advertisers.

The L.A. Times never met an illegal alien rapist it didn't like...but illegal alien rapists aren't buying ad space, are they?