McClatchy to Declare Bankruptcy?

Poynter article said Chatham has been relatively hands-off with its other media properties.

I can hope, anyway. Hope is a good thing, or so I've heard.

 

Heh. Heard the same crap at my last stop.

Two weeks later, two newsroom veterans gone. Four rounds of cuts in 18 months.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, etc. ...

 

I don't have a three-year emergency fund because of rose-colored optimism.

 

Without newspapers, hedge funds would not exist. Talk about viruses killing off their hosts.

 

Yes I was thinking this time the hedge fund will cut at least half the staff of all 30 papers and even some editors will go. I mean how is this hedge fund going to make $$ off this sale otherwise?

 

McClatchy still has a Washington bureau, no? When a new owner of a chain takes over I look the Washington bureau to determine how much commitment there is to quality journalism. If the bureau is gutted or closed then you know the new owner is a liquidator.

 

Correct.

 

Neiman went through the reports to the bankruptcy trustee of McClatchy. Post-COVID revenues are down 28% which means advertising is probably down more than 40%. Lee, in their conference call said their second quarter numbers would be similar. So it looks like Gannett and other newspapers are probably also looking at about 25% revenue drops.

McClatchy is currently roughly breaking even on a cash flow basis before the lawyers get paid.

 

How much has the market value of newspapers dropped?

In 1995 McClatchy bought the Raleigh News and Observe for 375 million dollars. At the end of 2018 Raleigh had the fifth highest daily circulation within the chain, behind Sacramento, Fort Worth, Kansas City and Miami and a touch above Charlotte.

The 30 papers within the chain just sold for 300 million dollars.

 

The owners, I'm certain, realized more benefit from 23 years of writing off their losses than they did from owning the papers.

 

Heads may be rolling already. Just saw the publisher of the Los Banos (Calif.) Enterprise, a twice-weekly, had his job eliminated.