Chicago Sun-Times owner files for bankruptcy

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: MSNBC

NEW YORK - The Sun-Times Media Group, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of suburban newspapers, says it has filed for bankruptcy, making it the fifth newspaper publisher in recent months to seek protection from creditors.

The move earns Chicago the distinction of being the first U.S. city served by two insolvent newspapers.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29971649/

---

What can one say?

[melm00se]

1. Buy/subscribe to

your local paper?

Seriously: print journalism, especially local newspapers, have gone to great lengths to devalue their brand. They have been giving away their product via the web at essentially, no charge. If they value their products so little why should their audience?

[pattmarty]

2. Wow!!!! I lived in Chgo for 54 yrs before I retired and I can still............

...........Remember when they had FOUR dailies.

[apnu]

3. The newspaper industry shot themselves in the foot about 10-15 years ago...

... by ignoring the online revolution and plodding along with an out-dated system of content delivery. They could have been, should have been, deeply involved in the rush to populate cyberspace. But the industry didn't evolve with the digital age and now they are suffering the consequences.

In the void between print media and digital media is where they should have been, but they didn't take part in it and so we have a new industry evolving to fill that space -- the blogsphere and digital only groups. Such as Democracy Now!, Huffington Post, Daily Koz and many others on both the left and (newly to the scene) the right.

Granted, news papers have been facing irrelevancy since the dawn of radio and then television. The news print industry has had issues with being timely since radio can deliver more timely information to more people faster than the biggest and fastest printing press. Television, moved content delivery away from radio, and sped up the time-line between events and reporting about those events. And now the digital age is making TV irrelevant, so if TV is losing the battle against the online scene, where does that leave newspapers? Out in the cold.

Its very sad, because with the death of newspapers, the death of journalism won't be far off. As content delivery evolved from print to radio, to TV, to digital... journalism integrity has suffered, especially in the digital age. It is nearly impossible to find an online source that isn't deeply politically slanted in one direction or another. That's the very reason why print news should have been involved in the digital revolution. But now its too late for them to get involved, the revolution happened and we're now in an era of post-digital-revolution, where these lumbering giants can't find space in the digital landscape.

[Robbien]

5. The newspaper industry shot itself it in foot when they went for the gold

and had hedge funds/private equity load the newspaper down with buyout debt. Papers were surviving but in the last five to ten years each large newspaper chain got itself buried under M&A debt while execs, banksters and private equity walked away with billions leaving the crippled newspaper to not only cover its operating costs but also now had to come up with hundreds of millions each quarter to service the debt.

[jfkraus]

4. Watch for the bonuses!

[global1]

6. The Chicago Tribune Might Help The Sun-Times.......

they are moving their TV Guide section from Sunday's newspaper to Saturday's newspaper. Their saying they are doing this to give their loyal readers (sarcasm) "more time to plan your TV viewing".

Actually - they are doing it to sell more papers. A lot of readers only buy the Sunday Edition of the paper - to get the sale papers for the week and the TV Guide for the week.

By moving the TV Guide to the Saturday edition - it will force people to have to buy the Saturday edition as well. What I have heard many people saying is that they will just switch to buying the Sun-Times on Sunday - which still puts the TV Guide in the Sunday edition.

Many people get a Sunday Tribune as an added bonus with subscription to their Suburban Paper. Many people will not be renewing their Suburban paper subscriptions due to the Trib's decision on the TV Guide.

So soon - you may be hearing here on DU that the Chicago Tribune will also be filing for bankruptcy.

[JoDog]

7. The Trib has filed for bankruptcy

The Tribune Co. filed for chapter 11 protection in December.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. What is interesting is that in some markets, the small community papers are hanging in there

At least those that weren't bought and bundled by private equities...

I think there is still a market for these local/neighborhood papers that stick with what is going on in one's immediate community. The larger papers can't compete with TV/radio when it comes to national or world news (outside of the long essays/investigations).