Freedom Communications is expected to file for bankruptcy this week under a plan that will hand the owner of the Orange County Register and 30 other newspapers around the country to its lenders, people briefed on the matter told DealBook.
A filing by Freedom, which could be made as soon as Tuesday, would be the latest by a newspaper publisher as the industry struggles to cope with declining advertising revenue and heavy debt loads. Several big publishers have already declared bankruptcy over the last 12 months, including the Tribune Company and the owner of Philadelphia’s two major papers.
Freedom’s bankruptcy will probably wipe out the 45 percent equity stake held by two big private equity firms, the Blackstone Group and Providence Equity Partners .
That outcome could mirror what is expected in Tribune, whose expected reorganization plan will probably wipe out the equity stake of the billionaire investor Samuel Zell, who took the company private in 2007.
The majority of Freedom is still owned by the Hoiles family, whose patriarch, R. C. Hoiles, founded the company seven decades ago as an outlet for his libertarian philosophy. Freedom took on the investments by Blackstone and Providence nearly six years ago to allow some Hoiles family members to sell their stakes in the company, ending strife within the clan.
No, I don’t know what it’s going to mean. After all, when the Chicago Tribune bought the LA Times, my division at the LA Times Syndicate had a counterpart in Chicago, but we were fewer in number, had more products, more customers, more revenue — and got the axe anyway.
In that same vein, in a newspaper industry that I’ve described before as the dinosaurs arguing about what that meteor that just hit the planet is going to mean for them, the Hesperia Star is a healthy little mammal. Not only are we not losing our collective shirt, we’re growing in revenue. Small newspapers, like the small mammals, are thriving around the country. Unlike, say, coverage of Capitol Hill, there’s just not that many competing sources of news of Main Street.
That said, I felt pretty confident about the prospects of the new media group at the LA Times Syndicate, too, and I ended up being the guy training the folks in Chicago who ultimately closed out our contracts and put bullets in the brains of the products we’d worked so hard to create. So we’ll see.
This afternoon, after I interview inarguably one of the most interesting 100-year-old residents ever — a staple of the media, probably from the advent of anything that could be considered a medium — and knocking out two political stories (and typing up the sheriff’s department’s crime log, if there’s time), I’ll be heading down to Anaheim to get my press pass for Blizzcon.
This year, my coverage will be going into the Daily Press’ features section, the paper’s teen magazine and out to the corporate intranet for other Freedom Communications papers to use. I’ll also be firing off a barrage of pieces to the Associated Press for them to scatter on the wind like dandelion seeds.
While you wait patiently for my coverage (and possibly my byline, depending on your local paper’s feelings about AP bylines) to show up in your local paper, you can follow my live-blogging of the convention via Twitter. My Blizzcon-centric feed is the cleverly named @blizzconnews.
And of course, I want to see if I can activate the Grunty the Murloc Marine World of Warcraft in-game pet tonight. The murloc costume back in 2007 worked on Thursday night, but last year’s bear mount — with murloc copilot — didn’t work until the subsequent Tuesday server maintenance.
It’ll be even more awesome if the murloc space marine (an homage to the forthcoming StarCraft II) interacts with the zergling pet (an homage to StarCraft I) from the original World of Warcraft collector’s edition. There’s at least twoother pets that interact with other pets this way now.
UPDATE: Yep, the zergling and Grunty definitely do interact. Depending on who gets the drop on whom, the loser dies messily. Very fun.
Joel and James ride the slide at Goofy’s house in Toon Town. James finally overcame his fear of slides after this and went on it over and over and over and over.
James and Isabel rock out on Goofy’s piano.
James and Isabel crash while Kate shops at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Fantasyland.
This is a pretty cool Google Maps mash-up: Destroy your home town. A nuke at the middle of the 92345 ZIP code will totally take out our house, alas, although the fallout will be blowing away from work, so I’ll be able to cover the attack from there.
I did one of these a while ago, but with the price drop of the iPhone 3G and sudden Treo death, several friends have gotten iPhones recently, and I figured running down what I’ve currently got on my iPhone might be useful for app ideas for them.
Home screen: First off, notice that I’ve rearranged the icons on the bottom, to be what I actually find most useful, rather than what Steve Jobs felt like mentioning in a speech. I recommend you do the same.
Most of the stuff on the home screen are default apps, but there’s a few others:
Facebook: This app is pretty good, but like real Facebook, there are way too many subtle distinctions in content, so you will find yourself clicking on three or four tabs to see everything that’s going on. Also note that anyone whose feeds you may have muted in Facebook will show up un-muted here, so you can remember why you did it. A new version of this app is coming soon. Free.
Pandora: If you haven’t discovered this streaming music service yet, which creates radio stations based on any songs you suggest, and then refines it based on your reactions to the program’s choices, this is a good time to do so. Works fine over 3G and even Edge service. Free.
Pennies: A simple budgeting app. The only issue with it is that it wants a set amount of money every month — if that varies, it’s not quite as useful. Not free, but cheap.
Shazam: Identify songs that you put your phone’s microphone near. The program will then offer to sell you the songs on iTunes, show you the lyrics or the music video on YouTube. Free.
Tipulator: A gorgeous little tip calculator. I know; I can do this with the calculator or just in my head. It’s still very efficient and slick. Not free, but modestly priced.
Twitterific: Post and read from multiple Twitter accounts. There are small ads, but they’re unobtrusive. If you really hate them, there’s a pay version that eliminates them.
Yes, I’ve heard.
