Comments on: Tribune Corp Files Bankruptcy (Updated)

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:00:14 +0000

According to the Bloomberg site, the NYT earned 70 cents/share the past 12 months, and is expected to end the calendar year with 74 cents/share earnings. There are 143 million, give or take, outstanding shares. So, by my math, the NYT will have a profit this year of approx. $106 million, despite a long-term debt load of $673 million.

This Bloomberg article gives some explanations about the debt, and points out that the NYT is not planning on missing their dividend.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aUVgllWTVFzs&refer=us

It is the debt that is truly killing the papers to day. With prudent earlier ownership/management, they would not be in near the predicament they are now.

By: Another Drew

Another Drew — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:21:04 +0000

If the NYT is so profitable, why did they have to take a 2nd on their Manhattan property to meet operating expenses?

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:17:44 +0000

In what universe are the papers not making money?

The universe of people who pay too damn much for property. But, if one examines the financials, one finds margins that are at least double those of, say Big Oil, absent outrageous debt loads unrelated to capital improvements.

Papers still make cash against operating expenses. Yes, over time, the margins are shrinking, and may disappear altogether. Yet, for now, the LAT and the CTrib make a tidy profit, against ongoing expenses excluding debt.

It’s a matter of fools overpaying for ownership.

By: MTF

MTF — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:43:35 +0000

As a general matter, the papers who propagandize for the left are losing readers and money, and will soon die.

It really is a simple proposition. If the news business was trying to make money these papers would be very different looking, and they would be profitable. The market will make that happen, and the Sulzbergers et al will finally be forced to work for a living, as they should. It’ll be good for them, and great for the country.

“Journalism” is dead! Long live the free press.

By: Jules Crittenden » T.P.

Jules Crittenden » T.P. — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:10:30 +0000

[...] Chapter 11: Market’s up, Tribune stock’s down, kudos for not asking for a bailout. Commenter snarks: LAT could have made buku bucks with that Obama tape. [...]

By: DCSCA

DCSCA — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:05:57 +0000

Patricia- A cuppa fresh coffee is cheaper than a copy of the Los Angeles Times with yesterday’s news.

By: Patricia

Patricia — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:21:09 +0000

DCSCA, you have had way too much coffee today.

By: JD

JD — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:14:19 +0000

Because we all know the way to best analyze News Corp’s financials is to look at Honda’s financials. Good Allah, teh stoopid, it should be painful.

By: DCSCA

DCSCA — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:09:54 +0000

Daley- ROFLMAOPIP Using News Corp data to substantiate News Corp. Next you’ll tell me its fair and balanced.

By: DCSCA

DCSCA — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:06:18 +0000

Chapter 11 will be good for Tribune. The courts will force management to jettison losing properties like the LA Times and perhaps retool the flagship Chicago Tribune; clear deadwood from its broadcast properties and print pubs then reset itself for the 21st Century media landscape. Its the newspapers that are the losers at Tribune, and the LA Times is the worst load they carry. LA is a sprawling collection of small towns and neighborhoods. It cant even support an NFL Team. Metro NY nurtures two. LA is a city with citizens who spend more time in cars than at home with a cuppa hot joe reading the paper. We gets most of our national and local news from radio, television and the web. LA isnt Chicago, either. It’s a city more distant from the centers of national discourse in Washington and New York. Time zones, geography, good weather and the LA state of mind all factor in. The LA Times tried to be a national paper. It’s just not. It’s a regional paper, akin to the San Diego Tribune or the San Francisco Chronicle. A buyer for the LA Times should cut staff 33%, close down the Orange County offices; slash ad rates by 30% and create special packages; cut sections down to four for print; cultivate new generations of readers, if its not too late, by working with schools across the marketplace; position itself as a major online metro paper with radio and TV synergy and a support print edition.

Or invent the electronic newspaper using that thin, soon to be cheap, flexible, Saran Wrap-styled LCD material they are perfecting in Asia and use cell towers to transmit news to a disposable paper. Sort of a laptop screen withoit the laptop guts. Seem far-fetch? So was moveable type 500 years ago.