Moody’s: Pioneer Press parent may default on debts in the next year
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 3:24 pm
- 3 Comments
Following the Pioneer Press’ inclusion in RealClearPolitics’ recent “10 Newspapers in Trouble” list, there’s more bad news for the St. Paul paper: Its parent company, MediaNews Group, is on a list by the corporate credit-rating agency Moody’s of companies most at risk of defaulting on their debt. The 283 companies in the “U.S. Bottom Rung” include 26 media companies, including Media News, the nation’s fourth largest newspaper chain which owns 54 dailies. The Wall Street Journal reports the list, begun a few months ago, is an attempt by Moody’s to better flag potential bankruptcies after being criticized for missing credit problems in the mortgage market. Combined, the listed entities have more than $260 billion in bond and bank debt, and 45 percent of Bottom Rungers are expected to default within the next year.
One MediaNews paper, the Los Angeles Daily News is trying to innovate its way to health. It’s testing out “individuated news,” or “I-news,” a plan (widely panned by media types) that allows readers to customize their newspaper content and print it out using a proprietary printer.
3 Comments
Comment posted March 11, 2009 @ 11:19 am
We used to have two nationalistically and financially strong newspapers in the Twin Cities, and part of that was knowing the other one was coming after them if they screwed up. If only McClatchy hadn’t bought Knight-Ridder. It spun off the Pioneer Press to avoid anti-trust issues, took on debt, like it seems every other newspaper owner out there, without the ability to pay it off, sold the Star Tribune to someone else buying with debt they couldn’t pay while the Pioneer press’s owner is in imminent danger… so is our assumption that the stronger newspaper would buy out the other one still safe? It’s looking possible for both to die. I can’t get over how none of this needed to happen, except the big finance guys made the same mistakes over and over.
Comment posted March 12, 2009 @ 11:47 am
Paul,
I am working with MediaNews on the I-News project. The reference and link to “widely panned by media types” in an echo of an echo. How about linking to a Google news search for the term “individuated news” to give readers some diversity of opinion? The link is below…
http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=%22individuated+news%22
Thanks much,
Stephen
Comment posted March 12, 2009 @ 1:01 pm
Hi Stephen,
I certainly didn’t mean it as a slam, and perhaps “widely” is a stretch. But here’s a few less-than-glowing opinions:
A fellow MediaNews employee says it’s a great idea… for 20 years ago (a common theme I’ve noticed among media bloggers).
http://thepicareport.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-news.html
Mark Langeveld at Harvard’s Nieman Labs says it’s “difficult to imagine a lot of enthusiasm greeting the i-News concept” and offers five points of skepticism.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/03/back-to-the-future-medianews-revives-print-your-own-newspaper/
21-year Knight-Ridder VP Ken Doctor isn’t fond of the idea, noting his distaste for having to add a proprietary printer to his desk:
http://www.contentbridges.com/2009/03/gizmoitis-affliction-spreading-among-publishers.html
And local media writer David Brauer calls the plan “goofy”:
http://www.minnpost.com/braublog/2009/03/06/7216/pioneer_press_owners_goofy_print-at-home_plan
Google’s blogsearch offers more: http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22i-news%22+MediaNews&sa=N&start=10
Thanks for the note.
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