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 [...]
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 [...]
It was another dismal week for the daily newspaper industry. Here in Minneapolis, the Star Tribune could only muster 6 pages of employment classifieds on Sunday for thye 2nd week in a row (actually it was about 4 with 2 pages of filler). At that level, the paper has got to be inching ever closer [...]
As bad as the news has already been this summer about the two dailies in the Twin Cities, it keeps getting worse and worse. Earlier this summer, the Pioneer Press announced that they were scaling back their daily and the Star Tribune announced that they were delaying interest payments. Now, as detailed on MinnPost, it [...]
Avista Capital Partners, owners of the Star Tribune, announced this morning that they did not make their quarterly interest payment on the $96 million in junior debt that accompanied the roughly $330 million in senior debt used to finance the $530 million purchase of the daily newspaper. While CEO Chris Harte reported that the company [...]
Back in May, McClatchy issued an SEC filing in which it had written down its 49% ownership stake in the Seattle Times from $102 million in 2006 to just $12 million, a drop of nearly 90%. McClatchy acquired the minority stake in its purchase of Knight Ridder and the Blethen family owns the remaining 51% [...]
According to the New York Post, which for some reason has zeroed in on the saga, the Minneapolis Star Tribune has approached its creditors and asked for a 6 month delay in making debt payments. The story reports that the creditors (Credit Suisse being he biggest) are resisting the appeal and are demanding that Avista [...]