MediaNews Holding Company (Denver Post, San Jose Mercury News) to Seek Bankruptcy Protection

[Newsjock]

Source: Wall Street Journal

The holding company of MediaNews Group Inc., the publisher of dozens of newspapers including the Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News, said Friday that it plans to seek bankruptcy protection, the latest in a string of troubled newspaper companies to seek refuge from creditors amid unsustainable debt loads.

The holding company, Affiliated Media Inc., said it reached an agreement with its lenders for a streamlined bankruptcy that will hand a majority of new stock to creditors, a group led by Bank of America Corp. The company's existing equity will be canceled, the holding company said.

MediaNews Chairman and Chief Executive William Dean Singleton and company president Joseph Lodovic IV will control the restructured company through a special class of stock.

MediaNews has been teetering for months, presenting a challenge to Mr. Singleton, a newspaper-industry veteran known as something of an iconoclast. Mr. Singleton's ability to retain control over MediaNews represents a face-saving victory in the company's restructuring, and on Friday Mr. Singleton said he wanted to try to be the aggressor in merging newspapers.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703657604575005813195786280-lMyQjAxMTAwMDEwNTExNDUyWj.html

[Hawkeye-X]

1. Rocky Mountain News folded almost a year ago today

Denver Post has sucked.