Tribune, a Big US Media Group, Goes Bankrupt

Tribune, a Big US Media Group, Goes Bankrupt
Sam Zell borrowed heavily to buy the company. Now, a year later, it becomes the victim of a weak economy and decreasing newspaper readership. Transcript of radio broadcast:
11 December 2008

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

One of America's largest media companies has sought protection from its creditors in bankruptcy court. The Tribune Company owns the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and other newspapers. It also owns twenty-three television stations and the Chicago Cubs baseball team.



Sam Zell, one of the nation's biggest property owners, took control a year ago. He led a stock buyout for eight billion dollars. He borrowed almost all of it.
Many buyouts in recent years were heavily financed with debt. But Tribune was struggling with thirteen billion dollars of debt in a recession. It lost more than one hundred twenty million dollars between July and September.

Tribune sought protection Monday under Chapter Eleven of the bankruptcy laws. Chapter Eleven lets a business continue to operate while it seeks to restructure its debt.

Sam Zell blamed what he called a "perfect storm" of economic conditions including a credit crisis. But critics say he simply borrowed too much.

Tribune is the country's first major newspaper group to declare bankruptcy since the rise of the Internet in the middle of the nineteen nineties. Profits have been shrinking as newspapers lose readers and advertisers to competition from new media. The Christian Science Monitor, for example, plans to publish only online by April.

Newspapers have, in fact, been losing readers since the eighties. But things are a lot worse now. Circulation in the six months ending in September was down almost five percent from the year before. Some papers fell more than ten percent. The two largest newspapers, however, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal, reported little change.

The New York Times is third; its was down about four percent. But Executive Editor Bill Keller says the Times is still profitable and had a billion page views on its Web site in October.

"Good journalism does not come cheap," he says. "And, therefore, you're not going to find a lot of blogs or nonprofit Web sites that are going to build a Baghdad bureau."

He spoke recently on National Public Radio. NPR says it just had a year of near-record audience levels on the radio and online, as other journalism investments decreased. But over the next year, the nonprofit network predicts a big deficit because of less giving by companies in the downturn. So this week it cut seven percent of its jobs and canceled two programs.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

----------------------------Google Translate

论坛，一个美国大传媒集团，破产
三泽尔借来大量收购这家公司。现在，一年以后，它成为受害者的经济疲弱，降低报纸的读者。全文电台广播：
2008年12月11号

这是美国之音特别英语经济学报告。

其中美国最大的媒体公司一直寻求保护，其债权人在破产法庭。 Tribune公司拥有洛杉矶时报，芝加哥论坛报，在巴尔的摩太阳报和其他报纸。它还拥有23家电视台和芝加哥小熊棒球队。



三泽尔之一，该国最大的财产所有者，控制了一年前。他率领一支股票收购8亿美元。他借来的几乎所有的。
许多收购在最近几年大量的债务融资。但是论坛是挣扎的130.00亿美元债务的衰退。它损失超过1.20亿美元， 7月至9月。

论坛寻求保护星期一11章下的破产法。 11章允许企业继续经营，而它试图重组其债务。

三泽尔归咎于他所说的“完美风暴”的经济状况，包括信用危机。但批评人士认为他只是借来的太多了。

论坛是该国的第一大报业集团宣布破产以来兴起的互联网中的19年代。利润已萎缩，报纸失去读者和广告商竞争的新媒体。基督教科学箴言报，例如，计划只发布在线4月。

报纸，事实上，已经失去的读者自从上个世纪八十年代。但事情有很多现在更糟。流通中的6个月内结束在9月份下跌了近百分之五从一年前。有些论文的跌幅超过百分之十。两个最大的报纸，然而，今日美国报和华尔街日报报道变化不大。

纽约时报的三分之一;其下跌约百分之四。但是，执行编辑凯勒表示，条例草案的时代仍然是有利可图的，并有10亿页面浏览量在其网站上在10月份。

“好新闻并不便宜， ”他说。 “因此，你不会找到很多的博客或非营利性网站，要建立一个驻巴格达分社。 ”

他谈到最近在全国公共广播电台。的NPR说，刚刚一年的接近创记录水平的观众通过广播和网上新闻的其他投资下降。但在未来一年中，非盈利性网络预测一个大的赤字，因为少给了公司在衰退。所以本周减少百分之七的就业机会，并取消这两个计划。

，这是美国之音特别英语经济学报告，写的马里奥特尔。我史蒂夫余烬。