Außenpluralismus
Ruß-Mohl über Medien: Wie wir [den] Außenpluralismus künftig sichern wollen, ist die Gretchenfrage; http://j.mp/d16ati
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Gerrit Eicker
Tribune Files for Bankruptcy
The Tribune Co., publisher of The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune…, files for bankruptcy; http://is.gd/aJdt
WP: “Media giant Tribune Co. yesterday became the first major newspaper or chain in several decades to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as the debt-saddled company fights sharply dropping advertising revenue and an ongoing recession. … Newspapers have been losing average daily circulation since 1987, though advertising revenue remained high. But the rise of the Internet and other options for news, information and reader time have sent readers and advertisers away from newspapers in the past half-decade, crippling them.”
CT: “Jake Newman, analyst with CreditSights, notes that New York Times Co.’s debt is 2.7 times larger than its cash flow. Gannett Co.’s debt is 2.2 times larger than cash flow. McClatchy recently negotiated with lenders to raise the ceiling on its debt covenants to 6.25 times cash flow. – And Tribune Co.? Its debt load is capped by lenders at 9 times its cash flow, Newman said. … Debt may have made Tribune Co. the first major old-media company to file for bankruptcy, and perhaps the bankruptcy process will give Zell the breathing room he needs to retool Tribune Co. to better compete in the Internet age. But wrenching change, and breathtaking failures, lay ahead for an industry in which advertisers are no longer willing to subsidize the cost of production.”
BW: “Tribune’s bankruptcy will be complicated. For starters, figuring out the value of Tribune in bankruptcy could be problematic. Every day brings a slew of steadily worsening statistics on ad revenue and circulation, pummeling newspaper valuations. On top of that, Zell used complex financing schemes predicated on tax advantages in structuring his deal. Those arrangements now raise thorny questions. … ‘In a weird way, the employees are better off that the company crashed today instead of seven years from now,’ says a banker familiar with the deal, who asked not to be named.”
NZZ: “Das Verlagshaus begründete die Insolvenz in einer Erklärung mit dem rapiden Einbruch der Einnahmen und der immensen Schuldenlast. Laut Medienberichten handelt es sich um rund 13 Milliarden Dollar.”
FTD: “Angesichts der wegbrechenden Anzeigen- und Werbeerlöse war in der Branche befrüchtet worden, dass Tribune die Kreditvereinbarungen mit den Banken, die sogenannten Covenants, brechen würde.”