Tribune Company Actually Has Filed for Bankruptcy Protection

by Deb Cupples |  This is sort of coming from the horse's mouth, because the Los Angeles Times is owned by the Tribune Company.  The Times reports:

"Tribune Co., the owner of the Los Angeles Times, KTLA Channel 5 and dozens of other daily newspapers and television stations across the country, filed Monday for bankruptcy protection from creditors, in the latest indication of deteriorating economics for the news business.

"The company's ills, which stem principally from declining advertising revenues, have been exacerbated by the heavy debt load of $12 billion it incurred a year ago when it was taken private by Chicago real estate entrepreneur Sam Zell."

Yesterday, I was wondering precisely why the Tribune Company chose to go private again, after being a public company since the 1980s.  Now, I'm wondering doubly, because apparently it cost the company a lot of money to go private again.

One upside of being a private company is that one doesn't have to regularly report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (which, I've read, is a pain in the neck). 

Another upside, from management's perspective, is that private companies don't have to publicly disclose details like executive compensation (maybe to the IRS, but not to the SEC).

I understand why companies would prefer to be privately held.  But Tribune Company was presumably already looking at falling ad revenues back in December 2007 -- when it went back to being a private company.  I have several friends in the newspaper business, and they've been talking about falling ad revenues for a few years now.

Surely, company executives knew that going private would force the company to wrack up some debt?  If that's the case, one must wonder why the powers that be at Tribune Company decided to go private.

Me, I'd like to get a hold of Tribune Company's executive compensation data going back a few years -- especially 2008. 

Memeorandum has commentary.

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* Paulson's & Congress's Bailout "Mistakes" 

* Lehman Execs Redistribute Shareholder Wealth (to Themselves)

* AIG Execs Redistribute Shareholder Wealth (to Themselves)

* Execs Made Millions While Driving Companies into Ditch

* Someone Please Take the Economy Away from Mr. Paulson (Pt 2)

* Are Bailout Funds Being Misused?

* Five War Contractors Indicted for Randomly Killing Iraqi Civilians

* Media Fails to Mention Nasty Effects of Possible Automaker Bankruptcies

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Comments

[david mangan]

Ha ha ha.... Quibbling about "executive compensation" when the real problem with the dead-tree media in general lies in alternative sources and the ridiculous bias in articles and choice of what is news and what isn't. I lived in Chicago throughout the nineties and saw the Trib degenerate into a DNC message board and PC crib sheet.

The LAT is no longer a purveyor of "news" and "facts" unless one defines these terms in Ambrose Bierce's lexicography.

[Deb Cupples (Buck Naked Politics)]

Hi David,

Interesting points.