In looking at the pile of headlines to catch up on regarding the daily newspaper industry, it’s obvious that December was another horrendous month for the daily newspaper business. Unfortunately, it’s going to be even worse in 2009 for them. But here’s one last pile of stories for 2008…
• The Seattle Times is freezing non-union [...]
FitchRatings, which forecasts economic activity of the world’s major economies, released a report on the United States that predicts the U.S. economy is in for a rough year in 2009 (what a shock!) with GDP declining by 1.2%. Of particular note in the report is the brutal environment surrounding advertising, which Fitch estimates will be [...]
The Journal Register, whose stock price is now $.0039 per share, announced that it will close 16 of its Connecticut weeklies and might shut down 2 of its dailies, the Bristol Press and New Britain Herald, in January if it cannot sell them by January 12th. In no way do Bristol or New Britain qualify [...]
The deluge of notable stories has surpassed by ability to keep up, so once again, I am forced to simply list the highlights…
• Will Google buy the New York Times? Despite the fact that the Sulzbergers have indicated they are not interested in selling, I would say the odds are getting better and better every [...]
Chicago and the Tribune Co. have won the 2008 D.I.D. (Daily Insolvency Derby) by a nose, narrowly beating out Minneapolis and the Star Tribune. It was a close race all year long, with many lead changes. As of last Friday, it looked like Minneapolis had it won with a seemingly insurmountable lead heading down the [...]
As exciting as any horse race you’d ever see at Churchill Downs or Saratoga, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Tribune Co. are neck and neck in the much-hyped D.I.D. (Daily Insolvency Derby). The old-time Norris Division/’Black & Blue’ NFC Central rivals Chicago and Minneapolis have rounded the 4th turn and are heading down the stretch [...]
The Business Journal is reporting this afternoon that senior creditors are stepping in to take over ownership of the Minneapolis Star Tribune in a debt for equity swap that eliminates 100% of Avista’s ownership in the daily newspaper. Avista invested $100 million in the deal and financed the rest with $400 million of debt, the [...]
In its latest attempt to stave off the inevitable, the Minneapolis Star Tribune is demanding that its unions trim off $20 million in annual salary and cost reductions or the daily newspaper will be forced to declare bankruptcy. The company also acknowledged that Avista Capital Partners will be writing off the remaining $25 million on [...]
Without question, any city with two competing dailies or even neighboring cities with dailies can start counting the days until those dailies either merge or force each other to collapse completely. In a great piece on Followthemedia.com, Philip Stone describes two such markets: Dallas-Fort Worth and L.A.-Orange County. There are undoubtedly others, such as Seattle [...]
At the beginning of the month, I wrote a post that posited the idea that the the daily newspaper industry had entered its final chapter, that the beginning of the end had arrived, and that the only drama that remained was which characters would survive the decimation of the next few years and make it [...]