SINGLETON MESSAGES STAFF

MediaNews nearing debt deal with banks

Singleton asks patience of employees

Media Workers Guild - 18 Dec 2009

MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton and President Jody Lodovic said Thursday that the company is close to an agreement with its banks on a debt restructuring plan. Once the plan is completed toward the end of the first quarter of 2010, they added, the company expects to have a "manageable level of debt" and will look forward to "a changing but exciting future."

Local officers elected

Clean sweep for PiPressers

Minnesota Newspaper Guild - 10 Nov 2009

Three St. Paul women won the local election handily over their Minneapolis opponents.

Local election for some Executive Committee posts

Three contested races

Minnesota Newspaper Guild - 05 Oct 2009

Members will vote for 2-year terms for officers on the new Executive Committee

St. Paul Guild members withhold bylines, wear black

Pioneer Press unit conducts job actions on Black Friday

Minnesota Newspaper Guild - 17 Jul 2009

An overwhelming show of solidarity among Guild members expresses dissatisfaction of MediaNews Group's latest work force reductions

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Media General also paying high price to spread out debt

Mark Fitzgerald - Editor & Publisher - 09 Feb 2010

Tampa Tribune parent Media General Inc. (MEG) announced the pricing of its offering of $300 million of senior secured notes that will help spread out the maturities of its approximately $730 million in debt. The notes will carry an interest rate of 11.75%. With its price set at a discount to face value, the notes yield maturity is 12.25%.

The price of debt: McClatchy stock tumbles on steep bond interest rate

The Associated Press - 06 Feb 2010

McClatchy Co. shares tumbled Friday along with the broader market after the newspaper publisher agreed to pay steep interest rates to push back its deadline for repaying debt.

Report: N.Y. Times execs met quietly with Steve Jobs about iPad

Editor & Publisher - 06 Feb 2010

Some 50 top executives of The New York Times, including Publisher and Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. met earlier this week in a New York restaurant with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who demonstrated the iPad and talked it up as "the future of media," according to a report by Daniel Maurer on New York magazine's Web site.

Arbitrator sides with former News-Press editor

The Associated Press - 06 Feb 2010

An arbitrator has rejected the Santa Barbara News-Press' $25 million claim against its former editor and ordered the newspaper's owner to pay more than $900,000 in fees stemming from their dispute.

Seattle Times Co. renegotiates debt

Editor & Publisher - 06 Feb 2010

The Seattle Times Co. has renegotiated its debt, giving the publisher increased ability to continue publishing "high quality, independent journalism," as the company indicated in a letter updating its readers on its financial status.

Journos aren't helpless against market forces

Alan D. Mutter - Reflections of a Newsosaur - 05 Feb 2010

Without question, there never has been a bigger response to this blog than the one that greeted the piece the other day encouraging journalists to demand to be paid decently for their work.

Google News to publishers: Let's make love not war

Mark Glaser - Mediashift - 05 Feb 2010

In the view of some traditional media execs, Google is a digital vampire or a parasite or tech tapeworm using someone else's content to profit. As that rhetoric heated up in the past year, Google has responded not with equal amounts of invective but with entreaties to help publishers.

Monster's HotJobs deal shuts 200 papers out of Yahoo newspaper consortium

Jennifer Saba - Editor & Publisher - 04 Feb 2010

Monster Worldwide's agreed acquisition of Yahoo's recruitment platform HotJobs means as many as 200 papers will be shut out of of the Yahoo newspaper consortium (NPC).

Arthur and the Blue People

Ken Doctor - Content Bridges - 04 Feb 2010

As if the New York Times' Arthur Sulzberger and Janet Robinson didn't have enough headaches, trying to figure out how to fend off that other daily beast known as the Wall Street Journal. Until December, 2007, when Rupert Murdoch pulled off the coup of his lifetime, cajoling, wheedling and finally hard-lining just enough of the Bancroft family into selling the prize Journal to him, the Journal had been a national business daily -- not the Times' direct competition.

Newspaper Web site traffic slipped in Q4

Jennifer Saba - Editor & Publisher - 03 Feb 2010

Newspaper Web site traffic is falling month-over-month, according to new figures provided by the Newspaper Association of America. The association today published the latest Q4 data for newspaper Web sites provided by Nielsen Online. The number of unique users declined when comparing October (73.2 million uniques) to November (72.3 million uniques) to December (70.3 million uniques).

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