Voluntary Buyouts Offered to Long-time Detroit Journalists

(Photo credit: Bernt Rostad)Voluntary buyout offers have been extended to veteran reporters at the Gannett Co-owned Detroit Free Press and the MediaNews Group-owned Detroit News, the Associated Press reports.

According to the AP story, a spokesperson for the Detroit Media Partnership, which oversees the two dailies' finances, said fewer than half of the eligible 155 journalists are expected to receive the payout. To qualify, applicants must be at least 56 years old and have accrued 20 years of service at one of the Detroit dailies. Those who take the buyout will garner two weeks' pay for each year of service up to a maximum 52 weeks, and will continue to receive health insurance during the payout period.

Neither McLean, Va.-based Gannett, the nation's largest newspaper owner, nor Denver-headquartered MediaNews Group, publisher of The Denver Post and The Berkshire Eagle, among other newspapers, would address whether layoffs loom if the number of buyouts do not meet expectations, but given the current state of the industry, such a scenario wouldn't be surprising.

Freedom Communications Courting Suitors

Image via WikipediaToday is the self-imposed deadline for Irvine, Calif.-based Freedom Communications, owner of eight tv stations and 100 newspapers, including flagship Orange County Register, to receive bids for the sale of all or part of its newspaper holdings, according to accounts in The Los Angeles Times and the Poynter.org Web site.

One needs a scorecard to sort through the possible buyers of Freedom, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 (see "TUOL" post 11/19/10). Halifax Media Holdings purportedly is eying Freedom's Florida and California publications, which include The (Panama City) News Herald and The Huntington Beach Wave, while Philadelphia-based Versa Capital Management, LLC has expressed interest in Freedom's holdings in the Midwest, which include The Alton (Ill.) Telegraph, according to the Poynter.org post.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times claims potential purchasers include Times parent Tribune Co., MediaNewsGroup, Inc., and a couple of Los Angeles-based private equity firms, Platinum Equity and Gores Group.

Freedom is mum on negotiations for an ownership change. Investment groups Alden Global Capital, Luxor Capital Group and Angelo, Gordon & Co. have been at the helm since Freedom threw off the shackles of bankruptcy.

Colo. Newspaper Publisher Axing Staffers; Will Outsource & Consolidate

Image via CrunchBaseThe Denver Business Journal reports that Denver-based MediaNews Group, Inc.-owned Prairie Mountain Publishing Co. will layoff 17 staffers, as part of an outsourcing decision.

Prairie Mountain,  publisher of the Boulder Daily Camera and Longmont Times-Call, is largely dumping production and advertising design slots. Their function will be outsourced to Elgin, Ill.-based Affinity Express, which has operations in the Philippines and India, according to the  Journal article. MediaNews Group's managing company, Digital First Media, plans to increase outsourcing.

Two Prairie Mountain production employees were let go, as part of a consolidation by MediaNews Group at the Denver Post, which the entity also publishes.

Media Group Seeks 'Freedom' from Newspaper & TV Ownership

Image via WikipediaLos Angeles Times media writer James Rainey reports today that Irvine, Calif.-based Freedom Communications, which counts 33 dailies, 70 weeklies and eight tv stations among its holdings, is putting its properties up for auction.

The Orange County Register, Freedom's Flagship daily, reportedly is drawing interest from the Tribune Co., owner of The Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, and Denver-based MediaNews, which includes the Torrance Daily Breeze, San Bernardino Sun and the Long-Beach Press Telegram among its nine California properties, according to Rainey.

Bids are expected sometime next month.  Freedom Communications emerged from a 2009 Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April of last year (see "TUOL" post 11/19/10).

MediaNews Group's Colorado Rocky Finances

Image via Wikipedia

The insolvency beat goes on for ad revenue-strapped, circulation-starved newspaper conglomerates with the announcement that  Denver-based MediaNews Group, Inc. ("MNG") will shortly file a pre-approved Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The financial restructring plan, which affects Affiliated Media, Inc., an MNG holding group, will give lenders an 80 percent ownership stake in the entity and leave current management intact, though shareholders will lose the value of their holdings. In return for the 80 percent equity, principal lenders, headed by Bank of America, will reduce MNG's existing debt to $165 million from its current approximate $930 million. Reportedly, 95 percent of the media giant's lenders and 91 percent of its bondholders have signed off on the restructuring plan.

The proposed bankruptcy package does not involve individual MNG newspapers, just the Afilliated Media holdings. Among MNG properties are The Oakland Tribune, The Berkshire Eagle, The Salt Lake Tribune, The St. Paul Pioneer Press, The Detroit News, and The Denver Post.