Tribune Co. revenue drops

According to Editor & Publisher, Tribune Company's revenue has dropped almost a quarter in its first five months under bankruptcy protection. Its profit margins have also been cut by over half compared to its margins of last year. The Tribune filed for bankruptcy reorganization in Dec. 2008.
Tribune Co.'s operating receipts have fallen 14 percent from the start of the year to May 31, the article says. The publisher and broadcaster still remains cash-flow positive, bringing in $112 more than it spent during the five-month period.
Since going private, the Tribune Co. has expanded local programming while launching new products and revamping older ones in order to make major expense cuts.
View the article here.

What do you think of Tribune Co.'s drop in revenue? Has it affected you? Comment and let us know.

Star Tribune Co. files re-organization paperwork

Editor & Publisher reports that The Star Tribune Co. filed a reorganization plan in U.S. Bankruptcy court Thursday, with a goal to emerge from Chapter 11 protection this fall.

Publisher and chairman Chris Harte said in a statement that he is confident that the newspaper will be in better shape when it returns, but that he does have plans to leave the paper, eventually.
Since the Star Tribune entered bankruptcy in January, it has drawn up agreements with 94 percent of unionized employees.
The Star Tribune says the agreements reached cost savings the company needs: cutting labor costs by $20 million a year.

View the story here.

Philly papers to charge for online content

By the end of this year, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News will charge for online content.
In a Reuters story, Brian Tierney, chief executive of the company that owns the papers, also said he has plans to take on Google over possibly getting money for Philadelphia Media Holdings from its content that resides on the search engine’s site.
From the story:

"In the case of the Philly papers, Tierney’s company is going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization proceedings. With the company’s life on the line and a $53 million newsroom to run, what’s the harm in trying?"

GM bankruptcy resources

The Los Angeles Times has created a list of General Motors Corp. top 20 unsecured creditors with the type and amount of claims each has in G.M., a great resource for reporting how G.M. filing for bankruptcy will affect other organizations. It also has great graphics on the number of union workers at G.M. and G.M.'s global sales by region.
The New York Times also has enlightening multimedia on G.M.'s current predicament, including a timeline graphing G.M.'s history from 1908 to today chronicling its struggles and successes up to the Chapter 11. Its graph contrasting the amount of cars and trucks G.M. has been producing since the 1960s is also very insightful. A NYT map showing the number and locations of jobs the company has cut in the past two years helps show where plants may be closed and jobs may be lost in the aftermath of the bankruptcy filing.
Click here to see the most recent press releases from G.M.

Have other information or resources you'd like us to find for you? Comment and let us know.

GM retirees get the shorter end of the stick

A flood of stories on General Motors Corp. washed over the unsuspecting public this morning. As of 10:04 am MST, there were 52,479 stories on Google News about G.M. filing for bankruptcy.
While many stories covered the necessary basics of what happened, some went beyond to look at the more detailed picture of the company's financial collapse. Forbes' story "A Sickening Outcome For GM Retirees" is a good example of highlighting the personal and devastating in what could be the faceless falling of a company.
At a time when people are still waiting to see the full fallout of a company's chapter 11, it's important to remember the people at the heart of the company and the story.
View the story here.

Trib Co. can pay bonuses, not severance

The Associated Press reports that a federal bankruptcy judge ruled that the Tribune Co. can pay more than $13 million in bonuses to almost 700 employees for their work last year.
But the judge denied allowing the Tribune to pay more than $2 million in severance payments to more than 60 employees laid off shortly before the Chicago-based company filed for bankruptcy protection.
From the story:

"We need to motivate and incentivize the key people who will implement change," Bigelow said. "These are really good people we're talking about. They're the best and the brightest of the company."

AP launches economic stress index

The Associated Press is launching an economic stress index that will provide monthly, multi-format updates on the economic stress of the United States down to the county level.
The index weighs three economic variables - unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcy - to produce a score on a scale of 0-100 that measures how the recession is affecting a county compared to all others.
The scores are then plotted on the interactive Associated Press Economic Stress Maps, which demonstrate at a highly local level how economic conditions have deteriorated since October 2007. They also can be used as a tool to measure the progress of recovery in the coming months, providing a granular view of economic change in the United States.

"The AP Economic Stress Index is a valuable tool for analyzing what got us to this point of the recession," said Kristin Gazlay, the AP's managing editor for business news and global training. "But, even more importantly, it gives us a way to look at how things change over time and judge whether the economy is actually getting better, including pinpointing precisely where the recovery has its roots."

Star Tribune, union agree on tentative deal

The Star Tribune, currently working through Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has reached a tentative deal with its newsroom union, according to MinnPost.com.

Workers who remain will get a 3 percent wage scale cut, a 30 percent across-the-board merit pay reduction (most of the newsroom gets so-called "overscale"), two furlough days a year for the next two years, and a pension freeze. Pension savings is not included in the $1.7 million the Star Tribune will save.

According to the article, Star Tribune management was not able to get rid of seniority when it comes to layoffs.
However, the union did agree to let management save a "small number" of less-senior employees in the event of more layoffs, so the seniority rule is no longer as concrete as it once was.
The agreement is expected to save the paper just under $1.7 million, plus pension savings.
Click here to read more.