Monday, December 08, 2008

NY Times: Miami Herald Said to be for Sale ... by gimleteye

As the economic hurricane whips closer to shore, it occurs why creationism holds such power over a large swath of America. The notion of a hidden hand, of spontaneous generation-- without scientific cause and effect-- dove-tails clean as tongue and groove planks with the idea that there is no one responsible for the worst economic conditions since the Depression.

Today, The New York Times reports the paper trying to raise cash, by mortgaging its ownership of the flagship building recently constructed in Midtown Manhattan. The Tribune is on the verge of Chapter 11. Two days ago, the Times reported that McClatchy's "stock price, which topped $75 a share in 2005, closed on Friday at $2.20."

The economic crisis is driving the mainstream media into a black hole. Democracy will be poorer for it. And our desperate times cannot be accounted for, as a blameless exercise. My view: if the Herald goes down, let the news room and editorial board go down swinging. Not with a whimper.

The paper can start by sending its investigative journalists on track to report out the true origins of the housing market implosion: not the scam artists in store-front mortgage shops it reported on Sunday ("Borrowers Betrayed") but the politicians and lobbyists who turned Florida into a chop shop for the real estate development industry and the entire chain of the debt and credit creation cycle.


December 6, 2008
The Miami Herald Is Said to Be for Sale

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
The McClatchy Company, burdened by debt and a steep slide in newspaper advertising, wants to sell one of its most-prized properties, The Miami Herald, according to people briefed on the company’s plans.

McClatchy, the nation’s third-largest newspaper chain, has approached potential buyers for The Herald, said these people, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue. But they said they knew of no serious offers for the paper, reflecting the evaporation of major investors’ interest in buying newspapers.

The company refused to discuss the matter. Elaine Lintecum, the treasurer, said, “We do not comment on market rumors.”

The Herald is one of the largest of McClatchy’s 30 daily papers, with daily circulation of 210,000, and arguably the most prestigious, having won 19 Pulitzer Prizes. But it is not clear what kind of bids it might fetch, if any; with newspaper profits shrinking fast, the economy contracting and credit tight, many newspapers have been on the block for months without selling.

The people briefed on the company’s plans say The Herald generates a very slim operating margin and that the most attractive part of any deal could be its prime waterfront real estate. But the Florida real estate market is in deep recession — one of the reasons for the struggles of the paper, which used to benefit from heavy real estate advertising.

The bid to sell The Herald continues the fallout from McClatchy’s $4.5 billion purchase in 2006 of Knight Ridder, the newspaper chain that had owned the Miami paper. Largely as a result of that deal the company has about $2 billion in debt, payments on which eat up much of its cash flow.

Some Wall Street analysts warned at the time that McClatchy, based in Sacramento, had overpaid, but even they did not expect the steep decline in newspaper advertising that began months later and has accelerated this year.

The drop has been most pronounced in Florida and California, states where McClatchy has a major presence. Through the first 10 months of this year, the company’s ad revenue fell 14.7 percent in other parts of the country, and 22.5 percent in California and Florida.

McClatchy reported third-quarter income of $4.2 million on $451.6 million in revenue. The company’s stock price, which topped $75 a share in 2005, closed on Friday at $2.20.


10 comments:

Geniusofdespair said...

yes, the Herald should go up the food chain on the housing...Are you seeing the ads for US Century Bank? Developers turned bankers... we need to look a little closer.

Funny they didn't report on their own sale...why did we all read it in the NY Times?

Anonymous said...

Tribune just filed Chapter 11.

out of sight said...

Oh heck, Genius, why didn't the Herald report on their own layoffs and outsourcing of editorial positions overseas?

Anonymous said...

Here's a rumor for Fleischman to print before hitting the unemployment line, Ron Book, Miguel DeGrandy and Juan Mayol are putting together a consortium to buy the Herald. This move guarantees the unreformable majority good press, plus it's just one more I.O.U.

Anonymous said...

Hey, don't forget that century bank is financing the purchase with the rock mining funds from Krome Gold 1, 2, and Parkland

The city of miami is putting the world's tallest building on the bay front site formerly known as the Miami Herald.

Anonymous said...

Let's buy the Herald before DeGrandy, Book, and Mayol do!

Geniusofdespair said...

check out buythemiamiherald.blogspot.com

Mr. Freer said...

is this some kind of joke? are the developers really going to purchase the Herald?

out of sight said...

It was in todays paper... the names of the people looking at the herald...

The filing comes as Miami real estate developer Jorge Perez confirmed Monday that he and Florida sugar magnate Alfonso Fanjul held talks with executives from the McClatchy Co. and The Miami Herald Media Co. about a possible sale of the Miami paper.

''Nothing has materialized,'' said Perez, chairman of Related Group in Miami.

Perez said he met a couple times with newspaper executives about a month ago but hasn't talked since.

''It didn't proceed any further than that, at least on my side,'' Perez said.

Fanjul, CEO of West Palm Beach-based Florida Crystals, couldn't be reached immediately for comment.

It isn't clear whether McClatchy -- whose stock has slid 80 percent this year -- has met with other potential buyers....McClatchy Co., parent company of The Miami Herald, itself took on significant debt when it purchased Knight Ridder, former owner of The Miami Herald, in 2006. It's carrying $2.07 billion in debt, which it has been paying down.

By Dec. 31, the company expects to close on a sale of 10-acres surrounding The Miami Herald's bayfront offices for $190 million. It plans to pay down debt with proceeds from that deal.

McClatchy has said in public filings that the credit crunch could affect the buyers' ability to get financing. ''If the deal doesn't go through, we will have a valuable piece of land we can sell to someone else,'' Lintecum said.

But the prime real estate owned by McClatchy is the waterfront site of the Herald building. It was not part of the parking lot deal.

Perez, a residential builder facing his own financial challenges amid the housing downturn, said the real estate wasn't his primary interest in The Miami Herald. ``It is a fantastic asset for this community and I would love to see The Herald in local hands.''


See:
http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/805091.html

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