Fears for US newspaper industry as Tribune enters Chapter 11

One of America's largest newspaper publishing companies has entered into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, marking the latest drama in a dismal period for US publishing.
In a week during which a report predicted several US cities will not have a printed paper by 2010, Tribune Company, which owns the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, announced it had filed for Chapter 11.The publisher said this was in response to declining advertising revenues and the $8bn (£5.4bn) debt incurred when the business was taken private last year. The news emerged as several of the country's main industry players revealed major cost-cutting strategies to beat the credit crunch and severe falls in advertising revenue.Today, guardian.co.uk reported that the New York Times is planning to sell or remortgage its headquarters to help raise $225m (£153m) in order to help it through what is predicts to be a "challenging" 2009.And following the sale of several of its titles, McClatchy, the third biggest newspaper publisher in the US owning 30 daily titles, said that it is looking to offload flagship paper the Miami Herald due to "lousy" results.Only last week, the largest US newspaper publisher Gannett, and owner of Newsquest in the UK, said it was axing 2,000 positions across its 85 daily newspaper titles.Real estate tycoon and Tribune Company chief executive and chairman Sam Zell said: "Over the last year, we have made significant progress internally on transitioning Tribune into an entrepreneurial company that pursues innovation and stronger ways of serving our customers."Unfortunately, at the same time, 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 publisher, which had relied on advertising for 80% of its revenue for its eight major dailies, will now restructure under court protection and repair its balance sheet, almost certainly through the sale of many of its operations. To make matters worse, a report by credit ratings firm Fitch put out a report predicting that several cities in the US could be without a daily printed paper by as early as 2010.
It said: "More and newspapers and newspaper groups will default, be shut down and liquidated in 2009."