In perhaps the starkest sign yet of trouble in the news business, media giant Tribune Co. -- owner of the Los Angeles Times, KTLA-TV Channel 5 and other newspapers and TV stations -- filed Monday for bankruptcy protection from creditors.
Tribune's woes stem from a combination of plunging advertising revenue and a heavy debt load of $12.9 billion, much of it incurred a year ago when it was taken private by Chicago real estate entrepreneur Sam Zell.
Tribune is far from being the only troubled media company. In the last week alone, the New York Times said it would mortgage its Manhattan headquarters for as much as $225 million to help cover operating costs, industry leader Gannett Co. pushed ahead with the layoff of 2,000 employees, and Denver's Rocky Mountain News and the Miami Herald were put up for sale.
"Everywhere you go, it's the same story," said Alan Mutter, a veteran newspaper editor and investor who writes the Newsosaur blog. "It's all kind of appalling."
But Tribune has become the first major news organization to file for bankruptcy, which could add a new dimension of uncertainty for the company and its 16,000 employees. During a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, major management decisions must pass muster with a bankruptcy judge, and the ultimate fate of a company -- including whether it remains intact or is sold off in pieces -- could be decided in part by its creditors.
Zell said Monday that Tribune's business units would operate as normal and that the focus of the reorganization would be "on our debt, not on our operations."
In its filing in Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, the company, which owns eight metropolitan daily newspapers and 23 television stations, said it had $7.6 billion in assets and debt of $12.9 billion.
Among the company's top creditors were the banks that had lent it more than $8 billion to complete the Zell deal, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch & Co.
Another top creditor is Mark Willes, the former chief executive of Times Mirror Co., who is owed $11.2 million in deferred compensation from his severance package of more than $64 million, dating from Tribune's acquisition of Times Mirror in 2000.
Industry analyst Ken Doctor of Outsell Inc. said Tribune "stands out like a sore thumb because of its outsize debt, which is far greater than any other newspaper company's." But Zell and other corporate executives said the company had a positive cash flow before debt service was taken into account. Its largest units, including The Times, are profitable on the same basis.
