McClatchy, Tribune, Buffett, and the need to think outside the box

On Thursday, McClatchy—the publicly-traded owner of 30 local newspapers, including the Miami Herald, the Charlotte Observer, and the Kansas City Star—filed for bankruptcy. The company will continue to operate, but is seeking relief from debt and pension obligations; if that goes to plan, it’ll pass into the control of Chatham Asset Management, a hedge fund which is already McClatchy’s top creditor, and which also owns the Canadian publishing giant Postmedia and the parent company of the National Enquirer. On Friday, McClatchy’s DC bureau reported that a federal pensions agency has concerns about a 2018 transaction between McClatchy and Chatham that could put the brakes on the bankruptcy process. Still, McClatchy—which has been family-controlled since the aftermath of the California Gold Rush—looks likely to end up in the hands of the 21st-century prospectors who increasingly own the local-news business. Local-news-watchers have traced McClatchy’s present plight to its decision, in 2006, to buy Knight Ridder, then America’s second-biggest newspaper company, in a deal worth $4.5 billion. (Yes, with a “b.”) The deal burdened McClatchy with debt, and since it was struck, ad revenue and print-circulation figures have cratered. A recent hike in digital subscriptions has offered some respite; still, between the Knight Ridder acquisition and the middle of last year, McClatchy cut nearly 60 percent of its operating expenses and more than 80 percent of its full-time staff,... Continue reading at 'Columbia Journalism Review'

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-02-17 13:11:10 UTC ]
News tagged with: #big publisher #canadian publishing

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