New York Times, Tribune Company, NBC Announce Problems Monday

Three major media companies all revealed grim news Monday.

The Tribune Company announced it would be seeking bankruptcy protection:

Media conglomerate Tribune Co., smothered by $13 billion in debt and a drop-off in advertising, on Monday became the first major newspaper publisher to seek bankruptcy protection since the Internet sent the industry into a tailspin.

Most of the company's debt comes from the complex transaction in which the company was taken private, with employee ownership, by real estate mogul Sam Zell last year. Although Tribune's next major debt payment isn't due until June, the company has been in danger of missing financial targets set by its lenders.

The New York Times Company said it would try to ease a cash problem by borrowing up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters.

The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze as the company grapples with tighter credit and shrinking profits.

The company has retained Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate firm, to act as its agent to secure financing, either in the form of a mortgage or a sale-leaseback arrangement, said James M. Follo, the Times Company's chief financial officer.

NBC Universal Chief Jeff Zucker told investors that he was considering scaling back the network's programming hours:

A terrible fall season at NBC is forcing the network to consider scaling back the number of hours it airs programming, Chief Executive Jeff Zucker told an investor conference Monday.

While NBC will continue to fund the creation of pilots, Zucker told analysts at a media investor conference sponsored by UBS that NBC is considering cutting the number of hours or perhaps even the number of nights it provides programming.

Comments

[Questinia]

Funny, I just called the NYT yesterday to cancel my Sunday delivery because it sometimes doesn't arrive or is tossed on the side of the road. I felt sorry for the woman taking down my information, she sounded nervous, so I agreed to a 1 month "probation" period . They NEVER re-deliver a missed paper, but don't you know it came today.

[TAIsabel]

This may sound superficial to some of you but I have always felt that most of these papers were too large and bulky. Most working people have very little leisure time and even less space, when commuting via public transportation, to handle them. Sometimes it is much more practical to get the in depth analysis from weekly magazines that are much more manageable.

I heard someone on CSPAN today (forgot who the talking head was, sorry) say the same thing as well as suggest that they could do this and raise the price a bit.

Just a thought.

[neosoul]

I plan to support the media sources I hold in high esteem...while i still have a job.

democracynow.org

[ErnestineBass]

Ever wonder what would happen if everyone pulled the plug on their cable and sent, say, half that monthly amount to NPR and PBS instead? Hmmmmmmmmmm

[AlexFTW]

But, if I pull my cable how will I watch PBS?

[mhopgood123]

Oh please....don't say that! Think positive....negative thoughts sometimes become a self-fulfilling prophecy!

[fem56]

A lot of the news comes from the mainstream media! We need these first rate papers in our country! The credible news on the internet comes from these sources. I love reading the newspaper, not the internet kind but the in your hands paper kind. Small city papers often don't have the checks and balances that the big papers have and the large professional staff. I don't want our country to lose the little papers either. I remember living in New England and reading the Manchester Union, know my head into the wall!

[MissTraci]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIJmNuzFdEw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8_s0AU7HMo

Can't find part III

[dnicolo1]

Perhaps we are seeing a backlash from NBC/MSNBC's coverage of the presidential campaign. Pay Back is really hard sometimes.....

[MIMom]

Oh really? Another Orally disciple?

[dnicolo1]

Wrong!!! Just the facts. MSNBC along with CNN and The New York Times alon with others were definately surrogates for OBama. You know it as well as I.

[Chillinout]

I blame Obama.

[firesideone]

And Clinton.

[doctorwang]

I'm sure ACORN is also partially to blame.

[MontanaHome]

Bill Ayers.

[Bullwinkie]

I blame the facts. they are definitely biased.

[LeftLeanWing]

I blame Brian Boitano.

[TAIsabel]

Since he obviously has the majority of Americans behind him (72% trust him to get us out of this s%@t hole) how does that reduce viewership?!?

[NoahVail]

Perhaps you are just seeing "something" in your mind.

[PJNoir]

I work for the Philadelphia Inquirer and about 45 mins ago I was laid off with many other newsroom employees in a newsroom already depleded. GoGOOD BYE HEALTH CARE. The reason the paper is losing money has notrhing to do with the newsroom but with management. You can talk about the news shift going to the 'net and but how much do you think Huff pays for a story? Or any other news site.
Soon the news source will dry up because everyone including the wire services which feed the interent will dry up becaue local beat reporters will be no more.

Obama please be a decent President- Health care needs to be on the front burner- I know you have a big job ahead of you.

This has been a bad day

[MIMom]

Oh. I know it's not much, but I am SO sorry.

I am losing two of my friends to "voluntary eliminations" tomorrow. Ax for others starts Wed.

It's going to be a bad week.

[ErnestineBass]

If the market shed 533,000 jobs in November, I can only imagine what this month is going to look like...Obama's sure got his work cut out for him. Mercy...

[fem56]

So sorry for all! We need our newspapers so keep up the faith!

[doctorwang]

Sorry to hear about your job loss. I wish you the best of luck in finding new employment.

[MontanaHome]

I am sorry.

[CaliforniaJake]

Sorry you lost your job. I wish you luck in finding another one.

[ErnestineBass]

I feel for you, darlin'...I've been out of work for more than a year now.

If nothing else, you can hang around here with us...it's like one big crazee family reunion.

[Gunga-Din]

It is a great momentum to put USA in a socialist way.Marx wrote about a big capitalism crise.

[firesideone]

Groucho?

[Chillinout]

Harpo

[KO4Pres]

what's a 'crise'?

[firesideone]

Similar in a cincrease?

[carrieanna]

I wish US tv would import some British comedy shows. I don't think it's necessary to dumb them down or recast with American actors. QI and Peep Show are amaaaaaaazing.

[parrotkisser]

There are a few on PBS, but they're about 100 years old.

[MissTraci]

Keeping up Appearances is funny.

[MIMom]

Still funnier than a lot of the claptrap on TV today.

[ErnestineBass]

I'd settle for AbFab reruns on PBS...

[JCrewCommando]

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a72/preppyprimadonna/abfab.jpg

[TAIsabel]

Ernestine you and I appear to have the same taste in shows. My daughter gave me the entire show on DVD for my birthday and Flight of the Concords for Christmas. Of course, all of Monty Python's movies too!

Check out "the Life and Times of Tim" on HBO, it is super!

[MontanaHome]

Excellent. Anotha' drink, dahling?

[Chillinout]

Not to mention Benny Hill. Great show!

[chicamorena]

I love Benny Hill. Wish they would put it in syndication in prime time.

[mhopgood123]

Remember Wheels on Fire? I love that show!!!! Did anyone ever see it?

[abuttah]

I can solve all this media wild west craziness.

News that tells the truth

Shows that are good and entertaining, and not "real people" being humiliated.

[klatuubiradanickto]

Scaling back programming hours..hmmmm does that mean we might see that ancient symbol, the test pattern and that awful warblely sound. You know, the Star Spangled Banner, and then the screen goes black for a number of hours. How peaceful!

[truthforme]

Of course, we always have the "off" button as well. Works just as good.

[ErnestineBass]

Here's what gets my goat...have you ever seen the CBS Late Night News??? It comes on around 2 a.m. and the dozen or so times I've watched it (chronic insomnia), it's actually been BETTER than their news at six with Katie. UnFNbelieveable.

[JCrewCommando]

Found the 2008 figures for Pew.

Where we get our news:

Television 57%

Newspaper 34%

Radio 35%

Internet 29%

http://democracyspace.typepad.com/democracyspaceorg/2008/08/how-do-we-get-o.html

[MIMom]

Really? Wow.

[doctorwang]

any idea from what month? I would have thought with the intense coverage/following of this past election the numbers for the net would have been higher.

[neosoul]

The internet penetration is getting deeper?
Looks like the print news is possibly loosing its audience to the internet?

[StellaDuBois]

Under current regulations corporations are expected to maximize return to their stockholders. This has destroyed American business by pushing short term bottom line thinking above all else leading to lack of investment and development for the future, decreased quality, and offshoring of jobs.

There was much promotion of 'the new economy' - a service economy without manufacturing or other 'low level' blue collar jobs. There was no mention that even service jobs, including higher paying ones, can be offshored. It was only a matter of time before it started hitting workers in the same sectors that were promoting it.

Yes, even newsgathering can be offshored to serve the Wall Street profit-gods.

http://www.artsjournal.com/flyover/2007/09/outsourcing_journalism.html

http://watchingthewatchers.org/news/1487/offshoringoutsourcing-journalism

[WLA]

AARRRR!

That was my Murdoch impression.

[parrotkisser]

Pretty good.

[FatherKindly]

Excellent! (That was my Mr. Burns impression)

[Ramus]

You got that right Stella. And if the new public works programs the next administration is proposing are contracted out to for-profit corporations do you think they'll use the cheapest labor and the cheapest materials (imported from elsewhere)? Probably. So all these new projects have to be run by non-profits..or the government? These new jobs must not be about making profits for the companies that win the contracts..but rather they need to be about the jobs and doing the projects well. These sorts of specifications about ..good wages and good benefits and low executive pay need to be built into the contracts.

[BoxNDox]

I agree with you that focus on the next quarter to the exclusion of sensible long-term planning is killing American business in general, but I'm not sure it applies in this case. In particular, the problems Tribune is having are in large part the result of the business being taken private by that cretin
Zell. Private companies do not have the same obligations publicly traded ones do.

The situation at NBC also has a lot more to do with basic incompetence than it does with attempting to placate shareholders.

[charleez]

When economic downturn starts it will affect all spheres of economy, then political and social life of a nation and the whole world. To underestand why these things happens I suggest to read this article:
http://democracyandsocialism.com/Articles/WhyRecession.html

[Misterdc]

It would be nice if they cut out all the propaganda and loaded sentences from the analysis in that linked article. It might be more persuasive. Because of that, I found it reaffirmed the notion of "cyclical", not "end of" scenarios in my head.

[windypaperboy]

the Internet won against AlPAC MSM !!! :-DDD