THE INDEPENDENT: The Chicago Tribune Company is bankrupt – and The New York Times is deep in debt. Can there be any future for printed news in the US? Stephen Foley reports from New York
'[sic] Will old media survive the 'perfect storm'?" wondered the Chicago Tribune, the day after its parent company filed for bankruptcy. "Tribune's collapse rings alarm bells for newspapers," rang out the headline in London's Evening Standard.
For the Wall Street Journal – which denies it has become more "tabloid-y" under Rupert Murdoch's ownership – it was a moment to wallow in the "Media industry's trials and Tribune-ations."
The headlines were black. These are dark times for newspapers everywhere in the developed world, after all, as the slow ebb of circulation figures has been suddenly and shockingly compounded by a collapse in advertising revenue brought on by the recession. The spectacular bankruptcy of the Tribune group – owner of the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, two of the top 10 best-selling papers in the US – and the humbling of Sam Zell, the billionaire property tycoon whose ego is as famously large as he is famously short – provided an irresistible hook for another traipse around these grim subjects.
And the inescapable conclusion is that more US newspaper owners will be following Zell along his arc from hubris to nemesis. The storied American families who carved up the industry between them over many generations – the McClatchys, for example, with their empire of regional titles, and the Ochs-Sulzbergers, who have controlled The New York Times since 1896 – will face unprecedented challenges in keeping hold of their debt-laden possessions.
Journalists, too, are expecting convulsions, including the demise of many local titles and savage cost-cutting at those that remain. Across the country's 1,400 titles, 15,000 jobs have been lost this year, according to Paper Cuts, a website monitoring lay-offs – more than one out of every eight. Regional newspapers' Washington and overseas bureaux are being shuttered, as the US industry's resources – still rich by international standards – become stretched. >>> | Monday, December 15, 2008
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