Loan defaults in McClatchy's future?

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003939434

Probably the biggest obstacle for most of the industry surviving this downturn is the excessive debt a lot of operations are burdened with.

It doesn't get as much attention as the home loan crisis or the the excessive credit card debt most households have, but there was a lot of speculation and excessive indebtedness in commercial real estate and in the media business over the last few years. Quite a few media chains changed hands at very high prices, apparently on the theory that newspapers were a license to print money -- a theory that had a lot of evidence going for it until very recently, too.

But, like housing, there have been signs for a long time that the fundamentals of the industry were unsound. Things changed fast.

AP reports more furloughs at papers in Texas and New Mexico

Details here from the Editor & Publisher site:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003939483

This doesn't look good at at all

A chart tracking monthly job loesses in each of thelast three downturns. Blue is 1990, red is 2001 and green is the current difficulty.

Union workers take furloughs

Workers at the St. Paul Pioneer Press agreed to take five unpaid days off as part of a furlough plan.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2009/02/02/daily59.html

Also, union pressman at The Day in New London, CT, also agreed to take 1-week furloughs. Non union employees elsewhere in the company are already taking furlough between now and July.

Layoff at Sarasota Florida paper

48 more jobs gone and a shrinking circulation area, too.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090204/ARTICLE/902040335/2107/BUSINESS?Title=Herald_Tribune_cuts_jobs_and_some_home_delivery

Hearst shows no interest in Seattle

P-I owner Hearst is not only putting the P-I up for sale with a short deadline, it's also NOT making a $1 million annual payment that gives it first refusal rights to the Seattle Times, so it seems that they don't have any plans to merge the two.

A local group trying to put together a deal for the P-I demanded to know if Hearst made the payment. I presume they needed to make sure the way was clear in order to line up financing.

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/02/02/daily21.html

Interesting proposal from Rutten

Making a grand bargain to create a paying model for content in a digital age:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/la-oe-rutten4-2009feb04,1,4979706.column

Three more papers drop a day

Accoridng to Business Week, three Ohio papers have stopped publishing one day a week, in this case Tuesdays.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D96490600.htm

Can someone come up with the cash needed to buy the P-I

It's not looking too promising.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/02/02/daily21.html

With just six weeks left to do a deal, there's little indication anyone with the deep pockets needed is interested in stepping forward.

Bill Keller predicts that the law of supply and demand will kick in

The New York Times' Bill Keller sees a declining supply of quality journalism even as the demand for it increases and predicts that the logic of the marketplace will eventually mean that a way will be found for the market to pay for it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/business/media/02askthetimes.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

I agree, although that does not necessarily mean that newspapers will benefit. It's at least as likely some new business model created by new companies will crack the code and find out how to make reporting profitable.

While I think print newspapers are doomed, I don't think journalism is.

Blaming the messenger

These folks should know better, too.

Newspaper execs complain about all the "doom and gloom" reporting about the future of newspapers.

The fact they are complaining about the coverage is telling.

http://news.newspaperproject.org/

Norwich (CT) Bulletin cuts printing jobs

The Norwich (CT) Bulletin has outsourced its printing operations, eliminating about two dozen jobs.