Trib value fell $20 million a day under Zell

Sam Zell may have set some kind of record in the speed he was forced to write down a significant portion of the value of the Tribune Co.Barely six months after acquiring Tribune at a value of $13.2 billion, the company charged off $3.8 billion in newspaper assets, trimming 29% of the value of the enterprise the Zellistas took over in an employee stock ownership plan on Dec. 20, 2007. The writeoff

A paper’s sad decline in debt’s grip

Advertising at the emaciated newspaper has shriveled to historically low levels. Its staff has shrunken to a fifth of its former size. Its readership has fallen by almost half. The presses have been shipped out. The building is up for sale.Welcome to the San Mateo County Times, a once vigorous, locally owned, independent, community paper in northern California that was purchased in 1996 by

Default-O-Matic update: TribCo at most risk

With the default last month of Journal Register Co., the Default-O-Matic now shows Tribune Co. as the publisher most likely to be unable to repay its debt in the future.The Default-O-Matic predicts a company’s risk of default by using ratings from Moody’s Investors Service, one of the three independent agencies hired by bond issuers to assess their ability to repay the money they borrow.Since the

Where’s the Edwards love-child story?

National Enquirer scoop or not, there appears to be way too much smoke here for the major mainstream media to continue ignoring the story about the out-of-wedlock child that John Edwards may have fathered.With everyone from Drudge to Leno to Wonkette riffing on a tale that began trickling out at Christmas, the MSM look foolishly out of touch by continuing to remain silent about the allegation

Getting local coverage in gear

A common theme among newspapers “reinventing” themselves is that they intend to concentrate on local news, the strongest and most defensible part of their franchises. But are they really walking the walk?Not in Denver, says Joe H. Bullard, the former managing editor of the Denver Post, who now operates a publication-design company in the Mile High city. Here’s how he would get local coverage in

Chilling sign: Private publisher exit plans

The intentions of Copley Press and Advance Publications to explore the sale of two of their signature properties represents a discouraging new lack of confidence in the future of metro newspapers.The potential sale of the San Diego Union-Tribune and Newark Star-Ledger at the worst time in the history of newspapering can mean only one thing: The publishers don’t think the business will get any

Who will feed AP the news?

Ironically, struggling newspapers and booming Google both count heavily on the same source for much of the news that fills their columns and populates their pixels: The Associated Press.But where does the AP get its news? Mostly, from the very newspapers that are trimming back their coverage as they shrink their staffs, according to a spot check of the stories moving on the AP wire last month.If