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CNHI AND K-R rumor

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by ScribePharisee, May 31, 2009.

  1. ScribePharisee

    ScribePharisee New Member

    Both will file Chapter 11 by Aug. 1.

    Anyone heard that? A friend told me today at church.
     
  2. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Are you talking about McClatchy?
     
  3. ScribePharisee

    ScribePharisee New Member

    I had to call him back. Since the paper was a former K-R, yes. I thought that too once I gave a few seconds of thought to it...
     
  4. Colton

    Colton Active Member

    Nothing would surprise me in regards to the company that presently employs me, CNHI.
     
  5. ScribePharisee

    ScribePharisee New Member

    Haven't they cut you guys to the bone...minimum staff levels to execute a daily routine; furloughs in two quarters, yet advertising and revenue producing people still are off the hook for sacrifices (which either tells me this is a poorly-run business model or the rumor isn't true). Sounds like they can't cut on most news sides any more and still be viable. And to cut salary, well, you guys are some of the most underpaid, underappreciated in the business. I just don't know how more cuts could be sustained.
     
  6. Colton

    Colton Active Member

     
  7. sprtswrtr10

    sprtswrtr10 Member

    I'm a CNHI sports editor in middle america.
    That ought to narrow things down a little bit.

    Anyway, does anybody know how top heavy this company is because I have no idea whatsoever.
    I just sort of want to know. I sort of have this vision of a whole bunch of self-important people in Birmingham, Ala., cursing their luck, when it was they who bought and bought and bought and bought, hardly caring what the quality was of what they were buying. It's also my understanding that the Mass papers they bought more recently - 3 years ago? - though they might have been some very good papers, they only picked them up by paying a lot more than they were worth (by making offers that couldn't be refused).

    Also, is it possible bankruptcy is somehow good news?
    Perhaps the cuts will now be made at the corporate level, too?
    Or maybe, just that something's happening, that the status quo is being altered will, somehow, represent a change that can't hurt because it can't get any worse?

    By the way, I'm told that my paper is in the black. Perhaps marginally, but that it is making money. We're one of the bigger CNHI properties, but we're still a community paper or, so I've been told, just the kind of property that's likely to survive the end of (most or many) newspapers. I want to think that, assuming we really are in the black, that a bankruptcy filing might be good for our place. Maybe we'll be sold. Maybe we'll be placed in a position where we can run ourselves without so much interference and, if indeed we're healthy, we can start acting like it.

    Any thoughts on any of this?
     
  8. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Most, if not all papers are in the black on a daily operating basis, it's dealing with the debt of buying up other papers that is killing the chains.
     
  9. SouthernStyle

    SouthernStyle Member

    Ding. CNHI is turning a profit. It's just not enough to cover the massive debt that's hanging over the company.

    State employees in Alabama should be concerned. Their retirement system depends on the success of newspapers and railroads — yes, they invested in businesses that haven't thrived since the Industrial Revolution — and this recession isn't going to get sentimental about the good ol' days.
     
  10. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    Railroads were in better shape than they had been since the postwar period - adding or improving long-ignored infrastructure -- until the economic downturn came along.

    Unfortunately for those of us in the newspaper biz, they have a more optimistic future than we do at this point too.

    As for CNHI and McClatchy, who knows?

    No offense, Scribe, but "a friend told you at church" isn't exactly what I'd call inside information unless you spill more about who this friend is and why they'd be in a position to know something like this.
     
  11. ScribePharisee

    ScribePharisee New Member

    His friend is in the company, or was, and got a job at a bigger paper, and the word was circulating there from something management heard about. I'm sure that in your business, this kind of shit is heard across the top of the food chains before the, and I use this word befittingly in the case of this company that seems to be a nightmare to work for, indentured servants. No offense, but Alabama was part of the cotton capital. Maybe these ingrates still run business like that today. Sure seems like it. I feel sorry for those who must endure. As Tommy Petty has discovered, I was there at one point, got out and got lucky.
     
  12. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    I still don't understand what happens when the companies go bankrupt. I know in GM's case it means a lot of cuts and closures, but what about in newspapers? Whether it is McClatchey, or JRC, or Gannett, there is no more fat to trim. What happens when they file? Is debt forgiven? Or do these companies just cease to exist?
     
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