Gawker: Debt

Not Paying Debts Will Really Help Newspaper Save Cash!

Hamilton Nolan — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:33:52 EDT

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune is in severe financial distress, of course, because it is a newspaper. It was sold (at a loss) by McClatchy in 2006 to a private equity firm, and has reliably lost value ever since. Though it still "makes money" in the strictest sense of the term! The paper has already laid off 100 newsroom people and put its headquarters up for sale, but now the company has hit on a new strategy for saving money: not paying the bills!

The paper announced that it won't be paying creditors this quarter.

The decision to skip a $9 million quarterly payment on its $432 million debt allows the newspaper to conserve cash while attempting to restructure, said company Chairman Christopher Harte.

You may want to put this strategy to use in your own life! What it really means is that, like many newspapers, the Star-Tribune has more debt than it can handle right now. Its creditors will either renegotiate payment terms, or the paper could be headed for bankruptcy. Because the chances of getting a fat new line of credit in the current economy: not so good. And the chances of being able to sell off the paper? Also not so good.

The newspaper industry is running out of Greater Fools. [ST via Romenesko]

Winfrey Family Ruined By $155,000 Clothing Store Debt

Richard — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:55:00 EDT

Packing their bindles, cutting the fingers off their gloves, and can-opener-ing the tops of their top hats, the family of humble talk show host Oprah Winfrey is desperately heading for the boxcars, which they'll ride to the sweet misty mysterious hills of West Virginia to live as vagabond hill-hobos until their whimsical, harmonica-tuned, moonshine-soaked deaths. Yes the family is in financial ruin, as evidenced by their being sued by a Wisconsin clothing store over an unpaid $155,000 debt run up by Winfrey's mother, Vernita Lee. She was supposed to pay in $2000 increments, but she didn't for some reason. Why this is remotely news—because surely Winfrey could take off one of her sensible loafers and shake out that much in Sacagaweas and settle this unseemly matter right away—is kind of beyond us, but at least it's not politics!

Annie Leibovitz: Artist or Deadbeat?

ian spiegelman — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:52:38 EDT

Annie Leibovitz, the 58-year-old photographer who cried "Art!" when she took those creepy, porn-y pictures of underage actress Miley Cyrus for Vanity Fair and that racist, King Kong-ish shot of Lebron James on the cover of Vogue, is also so ethereal that she doesn't even pay her bills. According to court documents, the shock-happy shutterbug has racked up debts to the tune of $715,000, even though she supposedly rakes in more than $2 million a year for her headline-grabbing work at Conde Nast.

"The 58-year-old photographer allegedly owes money for unpaid taxes, an aborted book project, and outstanding equipment rental fees. She's also at least a year overdue in paying for renovations to her Greenwich Village townhouse, according to the documents.

"Leibovitz, through a Vanity Fair spokeswoman, declined to comment on the debts. 'To the best of my knowledge all of these [debts] have been resolved,' a Vanity Fair spokeswoman said." [NYP]

But perhaps this is proof that she's not as cynical as she's seemed lately, and that she truly doesn't see why her recent work offends so many people. Can't relate to normal standards, can't be bothered to keep an eye on her finances—maybe she really is an artist! Nah, she's not.

American Media Will Pay Later

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:18:12 EDT

American Media, the publisher of Star and the National Enquirer, has come to an agreement with its creditors to "refinance" $570 million of its more than $1 billion in total debt. That's code for going to the people you owe money to and saying, "Funniest thing—I just can't pay you. Wanna change our deal a little bit? Or would you prefer I just declare bankruptcy and we both get screwed?" As savvy financial types like to say, if you owe the bank $1 million, they own you; if you owe the bank $1 billion, you own them.

Although AMI squandered millions needlessly on things like, you know, the services of Bonnie Fuller, the Enquirer's upsurge from the John Edwards scoop may be just the thing to push them back towards profitability. If they can figure out how to sell some extra ads on it, that is. AMI's ad sales were down slightly in the first half, though not as much as the rest of the industry. So chin up. Remember, down is the new flat!

[WSJ]

Journalists: Angry

Hamilton Nolan — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:17:38 EST

AngryJournalist.com, an increasingly popular site that consists of nothing but rants from pissed-off reporters, is now the most accurate summation extant of journalism as an industry. "I'm angry at my coworker who thinks his awful high school basketball videos that lack basic storytelling are good enough, because they get the most 'clicks,'" says one. Don't we know THAT feeling! After the jump, videos of Nick Denton playing basketball. Wait, no. After the jump, two comments that encompass everything that is right and wrong with journalism in America today.

Angry Journalist #276:
Editors who tell you to "dumb down" the writing, not trusting the reader's intelligence. The public who doesn't give a shit about what's going on around them. AP style, nut grafs, and ledes. The lack of balls in writing style. The large MSM outlets who skew the news and make community journalists look like assholes. The lack of truth in journalism. The fact that politicians try to make themselves look good in the press, rather than give the truth, and we have to take it as is. The fact that the state I live in has one reporter opening a month, we have a popular journalism major at a state university, and dozens apply to each job that comes up. What are the rest of the kids doing? The fact that I can't pay off my debts as a community journalist, and in fact only create more. The fact that if I ever want to move up in this field I have to give out blow jobs. The fact that writing shitty stories over irregular hours makes me so numb I can't bear to sit and write fiction during my time off. The fact that I am considering a trade job to get out of this field I worked so hard to get into. The fact that I love the concept of the news, but hate the way it is done, and am disillusioned by how I am told to do it. The fact that papers look to hire journalists with online and multimedia skills, but only take paper packet applications. The fact we have to write the same amount of stories we always have AND do more multimedia on top of it. The fact that there is never enough time to really spend out in the public chatting with the people who matter most — the readers. Shall I continue?

Angry Journalist #275:

contact's do not call back!