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A group of lenders to bankrupt Tribune Co. withdrew its reorganization plan for the media company, leaving creditors with three other options when they begin voting on how to end the 2-year-old Chapter 11 case.
Pursuing the plan “was not the best focus of our resources,” said Evan Flaschen, an attorney representing the group, made up of 14 hedge funds, including GreyWolf Capital Management and billionaire George Soros’ Soros Fund Management. Get the full story »
Tower Ticker | The Chicago Tribune and other Tribune Co. newspapers have signed a multiyear agreement to become charter subscribers to the new Reuters America wire service, a move that will make them less reliant on Associated Press for print and online content.
Though Tribune Co. papers have experimented since May with eschewing AP content in news, business and features — and, in selected trial weeks, sports as well — there is no plan by the newspapers to drop the 164-year-old wire service whose content is ubiquitous in print and online. Get the full story »
Former Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Feder, who spent a year blogging for Chicago Public Media before quitting last month, is moving his media commentary to Time Out Chicago magazine’s Web site, effective Jan. 3.
The judge in Tribune Co.’s contentious bankruptcy case signaled his approval Monday to send four competing restructuring plans out for vote by the Chicago-based media company’s creditors.
If he issues the formal order by Wednesday, which will mark the two-year anniversary of the case, solicitation packages containing disclosure documents explaining the four plans will likely be mailed on Dec. 22, said a Tribune Co. lawyer.
Creditors will then have until Jan. 28 to cast their votes and the judge will use those results to gauge support for the various plans ahead of a five-day confirmation hearing set for early March. Get the full story »
By Michael Oneal and Becky Yerak | The unsecured creditors’ committee in Tribune Co.’s bankruptcy case has filed the first of what’s expected to be about 210 individual claims against current and former officers and directors of the Chicago-based media company seeking to claw back close to $180 million in so-called “preference payments” they collected.
The first claim, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, DE., targeted Chandler Bigelow, Tribune Co.’s chief financial officer. It seeks recovery of more than $1.6 million in compensation he was paid in December 2007 when he was the company’s treasurer, including a $400,000 bonus and $880,645 in restricted stock. Get the full story »
Biz Stone, the co-founder of popular microblogging site Twitter, is eager to harness the vast quantities of information that it helps its users share to create a news network, he told Reuters Monday.
A Twitter news network would not necessarily be run by Twitter itself but would be in partnership with several existing news organizations, and would be open, Stone said. Get the full story »
A new side-imbroglio has broken out in the Tribune Co. bankruptcy, highlighting the often incestuous world occupied by big-time bankruptcy attorneys.
Let’s see if we can sort it all out … Get the full story »
Tribune Co. creditors asked a Delaware judge to let them try to recover millions of dollars awarded to insiders in the year prior to the media company’s bankruptcy, saying they can do a better job than Tribune can.
In a Thursday court filing, Tribune’s official committee of unsecured creditors said it wants current and former Tribune officers and directors to return more than $250 million of awards, including bonuses and restricted stock. Get the full story »
Sun-Times Media plans to discontinue its 11 free weekly suburban Sun newspapers by the end of the year, employees and advertisers have been told.
E-books have reached another milestone: their own best-seller lists in The New York Times.
The Times, whose best-seller lists have long been a benchmark for success among authors, announced Wednesday that in early 2011 it will begin publishing rankings for fiction and nonfiction e-books.
The digital market has grown rapidly in the last three years, starting with Amazon.com’s Kindle reader and continuing with Apple’s iPad and Barnes & Noble’s Nook.
Crain’s Chicago Business | Sun-Times Media is shutting down 11 weekly Sun newspapers — in Geneva, Bolingbrook, Homer Glen, Lisle, Glen Ellyn, Plainfield, Wheaton, Downers Grove, Batavia, Fox Valley and the Lincoln-Way area — though it plans to absorb as many of the employees as possible.
The judge in Tribune Co.’s bankruptcy case approved more than $40 million in 2010 incentive bonuses for 635 operating managers and executives Wednesday.
But based on the company’s projected performance through the end of the year, the payout will likely be closer to $30 million, according to court documents. Get the full story »
The London Times and Sunday Times say that 105,000 people have paid for access to the papers’ websites.
In its first report on the success of the pay wall, News International said 100,000 other people signed up for a joint subscription to the printed edition and the web. Get the full story »
Tribune Co. creditors filed sprawling lawsuits on Monday that take aim at Sam Zell, his banks and advisers for the disastrous leveraged buyout that plunged the publisher into bankruptcy two years ago.
The lawsuit accuses billionaire Zell and the Tribune board of defrauding Tribune’s creditors by pursuing the buyout of the owner of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune knowing it would lead to bankruptcy. Get the full story »
A group of hedge funds sued the four banks that funded Tribune Co.’s 2007 leveraged buyout, alleging that the lenders knowingly rendered the company insolvent and precipitated its 2008 bankruptcy.
The suit, filed on Friday in New York state court, charges JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch Capital Corp., Citicorp North America Inc. and Bank of America with breach of contract, breach of good faith and negligence. It asks the court to set damages. Get the full story »
