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Economy
Another one bites the dust - Sun-Times Group Files for Bankruptcy
2009-03-31
NEW YORK -- The Sun-Times Media Group, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of suburban newspapers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Tuesday, making it the fifth newspaper publisher to seek protection from creditors in recent months.

The step, brought on by a precipitous decline in advertising revenue, means both of Chicago's major daily newspapers are operating under bankruptcy protection. Tribune Co., the parent company of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, filed for Chapter 11 in December.

The Sun-Times Media Group, which filed in a Delaware court, said it will continue to operate its print and online properties. The company listed $479 million in assets and $801 million in debt. The largest unsecured creditors are newsprint vendors. Three are owed more than $1 million each.
Both the Sun Times and the Trib are victims of rapacious financiers who bought the companies with tons of debt that they now can't repay.
"We firmly believe that filing for Chapter 11 protection and exploring the potential sale of assets or new investment in the company offers us the best opportunity to protect our respected media properties for the long-term," Jeremy Halbreich, the company's interim chief executive, said in a statement.

The Sun-Times, the company's flagship newspaper, had a paid weekday circulation of about 313,000 as of September, ranking it 17th in the U.S.

The dire financial condition of Chicago's newspapers mirrors the situation in Philadelphia, where the publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News filed for bankruptcy protection in February.

Other cities with two daily newspapers have seen the industry's crisis whittle away competition this year. The Rocky Mountain News closed, leaving The Denver Post, while the Seattle Post-Intelligencer went online only, leaving The Seattle Times without a mainstream daily print rival.
Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC

#5  Fuzzily recall back to school daze. Journo majors were right up there in the smarts department with education majors, but a whole lot more obnoxious.
Posted by: ed   2009-03-31 19:17  

#4  perhaps because post-woodward/bernstein, tey started to recruit community organizers activists who wanted to "make a change"? If they'd stuck to their job, they might still have an industry. Instead, they recruited every Social Studies wanna-be that couldn't do math
Posted by: Frank G   2009-03-31 19:16  

#3  Good memories, Mom, good memories. The Mirage Bar, had almost forgotten that one. And Royko was one of the very best columnists of all time.

When newspapers report news they tend to do well. Beats me how such smart people as journalists forgot that.
Posted by: Steve White   2009-03-31 19:03  

#2  It was an excellent newspaper, with first-class investigative reporters, until Rupert "The Alien" Murdoch bought it and gutted it. When Murdoch bought the paper, Ann Landers, Mike Royko, and almost all the other columnists jumped ship to the Tribune. The reading level of the articles in the Sun Times dropped to 5th Grade or lower.

I don't know what happened to Pam Zekman and Zay N. Smith, whose investigations included exposing sloppy patient care in abortion clinics (has anybody dared to touch that topic since 1980?) and the famous "Mirage" Bar sting operation. The Mirage was a Near-North bar opened undercover by the Sun Times. The staff photographed crooked city inspectors demanding bribes, and documented months and months of graft, protection rackets and other Machine activities.
Posted by: mom   2009-03-31 17:28  

#1  Odd thing, their suburban papers are profitable because they have reporters who honestly cover stories.

The 'Flagship' the Sun-Times, as been the 'house organ' for the Daley Democrats for years and Obama recently.
Their 'columnists' are left winger nut jobs, the editorial board can never find a Democrat or 'progressive' issue they do not like,
75% of their 'news' coverage consists of AP stories and the Obits page is so small it is obvious that even the dead do not want to be involved with that paper.

Of course they are blaming Conrad Black for their tax evasion, alienating their customers, chasing away their advertisers, etc.

Once it was a pretty good newspaper...
Posted by: Flise Ghibelline7460   2009-03-31 17:03  

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