How Newspapers Tried to Invent the WebBut failed

By Jack Shafer
Slate

A moment of sympathy, please, for newspapers, whose readers and advertisers have been fleeing at a frightening rate.

It would be easy to accuse editors and publishers of being clueless about the coming Internet disruption and to insist that the industry's proper reward for decades of haughty attitude, bad planning, and incompetence is bankruptcy.

But newspapers have really, really tried to wrap their hands around the future and preserve their franchise... [Click for MORE]

> Papers still searching for online answers Sphere: Related Content

This News Just In From Chicago...

Bidding for Chicago Cubs may be near a conclusion
Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Cubs, is close to selecting a winning bid for the team from three finalists, according to people familiar with the sales talks.

NYSE Officially De-lists Certain Tribune Co. Debt
The New York Stock Exchange followed up on its stop-trading order last month, officially notifying the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday that it has delisted some of Tribune Co.’s publicly traded debt.

Tribune default swaps may recover in 3.5 pct area
Sellers of protection on bankrupt Tribune Co's bonds are facing losses in the area of 96.5 percent of the insurance they sold, based on the initial results of an auction on Tuesday published by auction administrators Creditex and Markit.

OR

Tribune CDS recover 1.5 percent in auction
Sellers of protection on Tribune Co's bonds are facing losses of 98.5 percent of the insurance they sold, based on the results of an auction on Tuesday to determine the value of the bankrupt company's credit default swaps.The auction determined swaps on Tribune's bonds are worth 1.5 cents on the dollar, said auction administrators Creditex and Markit. Sphere: Related Content

Let's Start a Newspaper

Mother Goose & Grimm

Click cartoon for larger image

Sphere: Related Content

LA-Area Newspapers to Merge Copy Desks

Announcements have been made in multiple newsrooms ... that a plan to merge all LANG copy desks into a central desk at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, is tentatively scheduled for February or March and 2008 LANG-offered buyout options will remain in effect: one week of pay per year of service up to six years plus three months COBRA and a promise not to contest unemployment.

The terms of layoffs/buyouts are subject to negotiation for Guild-covered staffers. [Click for MORE] Sphere: Related Content

Tribune Bankruptcy May Trigger Tax Complications

Of the many issues that surfaced after Tribune Co. filed for Chapter 11 protection yesterday, tax consequences were among the least discussed. But tax effects may be extremely cumbersome to deal with as the company works its way through bankruptcy, especially if Tribune loses its tax status as a so-called S corporation, says a new client advisory from Robert Willens LLC.

An S corporation — named so because it is subject to the tax code's subchapter S provision — meets the Internal Revenue definition of a small business, has fewer than 100 shareholders, and is structured as a corporation but taxed like a partnership. As a result, income and the attendant taxes pass through the corporation directly to the shareholders, who pay taxes on the profits. So, with the exception of "built-in gains," an S corporation is not subject to tax on its income.

Currently, all of Tribune's outstanding stock is owned by an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), established when owner Sam Zell orchestrated the LBO. However, the number of shareholders may grow precipitously if the company is forced through a bankruptcy restructuring to pay-off its creditors in stock. That's a problem, notes tax expert Willens in his company's advisory. [Click for MORE]

> Lee auditors issue ‘going concern’ warning

> Analysts: McClatchy is vulnerable going into 2009

> NYT Co., Gannett face debt hangover

Sphere: Related Content

With News Business in Crisis, What Do Journalism Professors Tell Students?

Falling ad revenue. Plunging profits. Layoffs. Downsizing. Bankruptcy filings.

The news in the news business can’t get any worse. Some days it seems as if those who write the first draft of history have little in the way of a future.

So what are journalism professors, those charged with grooming the next generation of reporters, editors and producers, telling their students these days about the news business in general, and print journalism, that seemingly most endangered of species, in particular?[Click for MORE]

> New California law protects school journalism advisors

Sphere: Related Content

End of the World! NY Times Prints Color Ad on Front Page!

In its latest concession to the worst revenue slide since the Depression, The New York Times has begun selling display advertising on its front page, a step that has become increasingly common across the newspaper industry.

The first such ad, appearing Monday in color, was bought by CBS. The ad, two-and-a-half inches high, lies horizontally across the bottom of the front page, below the news articles and a brief summary of some articles in the paper. In a statement, the paper said such ads would be placed “below the fold” — that is, on the lower half of the page. [Click for MORE]

> Front page ads in the New York Times cost $75,000 daily, $100,000 on Sunday
> Former newspaper rivals cooperate as jobs are cut Sphere: Related Content