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http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/tribune-co-files-chapter-11/story.aspx?guid=%7B1392247C-8A56-4EA9-ADE2-EAF074604E30%7D&dist=msr_1

Tribune files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

By David B. Wilkerson, MarketWatch
Last update: 3:01 p.m. EST Dec. 8, 2008CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Tribune Co. said Monday that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to restructure its nearly $13 billion debt load, a move that dramatically underscores the dire circumstances clouding the near-term future of the newspaper industry.
The owner of the Chicago Tribune, founded in 1847, said that its operations would continue during the restructuring, allowing it to keep running its newspapers, television stations and interactive properties, and that it currently has enough cash to fund them.
The Chicago Cubs franchise, including Wrigley Field, is not included in the Chapter 11 filing, Tribune added. The company will continue to look for ways to monetize the Cubs and its related assets.
Real-estate investor Sam Zell, who acquired Tribune last December, commented that factors beyond our control have created a perfect storm -- a precipitous decline in revenue and a tough economy coupled with a credit crisis that makes it extremely difficult to support our debt.
The financing of Zell\'s $8.2 billion transaction involved the creation of an employee stock program that incurred a significant amount of debt.
Prior to Monday\'s filing, there had been concerns that the company might not be able to come up with more than $1 billion in interest payments due in 2008, and could default on a payment of more than $500 million due by June.
Last month, Tribune reported a third-quarter loss of $121.6 million. A year earlier, it had posted earnings of $152.8 million. Advertising plunged 19% at its newspapers, which include the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and the Baltimore Sun.
At the Times, which has been hemorrhaging readers and advertisers in recent years, an employee who did not want to be identified said the staff already has endured severe cuts and that company executives are saying no further reductions are planned.
The bankruptcy filing didn\'t come as a surprise to the staff, since the company has said it needs to restructure its debt, the individual said, but employees are still sorting out what it will mean.
To pay down its debt, Tribune has declared itself willing to sell many of its assets. The company earlier this year agreed to sell a 97% stake in Long Island, N.Y., newspaper Newsday to Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVCCablevision Systems Corporation
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Writing on the wall
For several years, newspapers have seen precipitous declines in print-advertising revenue, as traditionally heavy buyers of print ads such as automakers and airlines have experienced problems of their own.
Classified advertising, which has long been the main source of income for newspapers, has declined calamitously in step with the real-estate downturn, decreased demand for help-wanted ads and the defection of many transactions to Craigslist and other competing Web-based services.
In 2005, angry newspaper-company shareholders began to make vocal demands for spin-offs or sales. During the summer of 2006, the Chandler Trusts, Tribune\'s largest shareholder, demanded that the company make a major shift to revive its stock, which had lost nearly half its value since early 2004. Within weeks, the company said that it would pursue strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of some or all of the company\'s operations.