Noting that the credit rating of the
Times-Standard
‘s parent corporation, MediaNews, recently fell into deep junk status, the
Reflections of a Newsosaur
blog’s “Default-O-Matic”
registers the company as one of the two big chains most likely to default on its debt in the imminent future. Moody’s
now rates MediaNews at Caa3
, which represents a 73 percent chance of default. It’s the lowest you can go.
Standard & Poor’s
says
:
At the current rate of cash flow decline, it appears likely that MediaNews will pursue a restructuring of some kind over the near term, even following an amendment to the company’s credit facility and the sale of the Connecticut Post (and management control over three other Connecticut daily papers) to Hearst Corp.
The company, which owns 54 daily newspapers and countless community weeklies, carries a billion dollars in debt. Its fellow Caa3-er, Morris Publishing, is a much smaller affair.
MediaNews recently announced mandatory furloughs for all staff at all California newspapers,
including the
Times-Standard
.
(h/t
Latest Word
)
This article appears in Mending Broken Hearts.
Word came today from T-S lifestyle reporter Sharon Letts – she’s laid off as of Sunday. She says other lay-offs will follow.
Yikes. That’s awful.
That answers my question from the other post, about what happened to Sharon. Wonder when the ax will fall on others.