Saturday, February 14, 2009

Alan Mutter: several newspapers are headed toward default

Alan Mutter says several newspapers are on the verge of defaulting. He thinks McClatchy will default after MediaNews Group and Morris Publishing.
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

But what about all the micro-payments Mutter just talked about?

Couldn't NMI grab that tiller and head towards that body of water?

Speaking of which, how are the pics of that phony swimmer selling?

I guess MNI didn't call her "Mutter" even on Valentines day

Anonymous said...

Howard Weaver has put a good name on the new spinners,
“the mutterjarvisdoctor chorus.” He sounds as if he is “F**king tired” again, and ready to call the spinmen out.

Anonymous said...

This is not Mutter, but the opinion of a Harvard U. type, he says, “…so we need to await the 10K report.”
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NiemanJournalismLab - A Project of the NiemanFoundation at Harvard U

Pension funding gap looms as another newspaper problem

McClatchy hasn’t specified the level of its funding gap, [so we need to await the 10K report] for the real numbers. But at the end of 2007, McClatchy reported pension obligations of $1.55 billion, and plan assets of $1.38 billion, for an underfunded status of $172 million.

Assuming an assets decline of 20 percent, that underfunding will have risen to $448 million at the end of 2008, which could require funding of about $65 million starting next year. That would be 18 percent of 2008 cash flow, and could become as much as 25% with a little more erosion in ad revenue.

So it’s no wonder McClatchy clamped a benefits freeze on its pension plan as of the end of March.

http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/02/pension-funding-gap-looms-as-another-newspaper-

Anonymous said...

Howard Weaver is nothing but Gary Pruitt's fluffer. He is a non-entity in the news business and is a traitor to hard working journalists everywhere. I read his blog just to see how fast his dementia is progressing.....

Anonymous said...

Howard Weaver is nothing but Gary Pruitt's fluffer.
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I don't know about fluffing, but they both feathered their nests pretty well during the MNI stock slide

Anonymous said...

I know a lot of employees that actually liked Howard Weaver. I don’t know why he is dropping like a rock, but his name now brings groans. He should have just crossed his burning bridge, and stayed on the other side. I think he just bailed out on everyone. He just seems small and useless to me.