Bankruptcy in review: Companies that have filed chapter 11

Posted by Emily Dilling on April 1, 2009 at 4:42 AM

Since the end of last year, five major U.S. newspapers have filed for bankruptcy protection, The Associated Press reported .

The companies include Tribune Co., which owns titles such as The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel, Hartford Courant, which is merging with local television stations, and the Spanish language free daily Hoy in Chicago, whose sister edition in Los Angeles has just become a weekly. Tribune Co. has an accumulate debt of US$13 billion and had $7.6 billion in assets when it filed chapter 11.

Star Tribune Holdings Corp. also filed for protection at the beginning of the year, partly due to the large amounts of debt accrued from the 2007 acquisition from McClatchy. The Holdings Corp. owns the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

In February, the Journal Register Co. filed for protection. Journal Register owns several dailies in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, and New York. The company counts $692 million in debt and has sold two of its Connecticut dailies and closed a number of weeklies.

Shortly afterward, Philadelphia Newspapers, LLC filed as well. The company, which owns The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, reported $395 million in debt.

The Sun-Times Media Group made the list when it filed chapter 11 on Tuesday. The company has closed 12 weekly newspapers and asked union employees to accept salary cuts.