It's Come Down To This: Tribune Co Preparing To File Bankruptcy

From The NYT

Tribune has hired bankruptcy advisers as the ailing newspaper company faces a potential bankruptcy filing, people briefed on the matter said.

The newspaper, which was taken private last year by billionaire investor Samuel Zell, has hired advisers including Lazard and Sidley Austin, one of its longtime law firms, these people said. Tribune has been hobbled by debt related to that sale last year, which has been compounded by the growing drought of advertising for newspapers.

On a personal note, The Chicago Tribune played an important role in my career. When I decided to return to journalism in 2001,after a 25- year hiatus, I wanted to work at a prestigious news organization. The business section of the Chicago Tribune gave me that opportunity. For two years I wrote features and helped write a column about small business owners who shared their biggest mistake and the lesson learned.

It's not that newspapers have not folded in the past..There has been a trend for fewer papers for the past 30 years. When I was growing up in Richmond, VA -it had, like many other cities, a  morning and afternoon paper. Then there was just the morning paper.

While The Tribune bankruptcy filing  may portend of a future with fewer "newspapers" it does not mean there will be less news coverage-- it's just going to be in a different.

Just last week I predicted -- not sure if I predicted on this blog --but I did predict to friends that I could imagine in the next six months-- that many  papers would limit their print editions to the weekend  and rely on their online versions for  the rest of the week. What would have seemed like an outlandish prediction six months ago didn't even get an eye roll.

And so it goes.