Mpls. Star Tribune denies being close to bankruptcy
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The Star Tribune has hired a private equity firm to advise it but disputed a published report that said it's "on the brink of bankruptcy."
"The facts are that the Star Tribune currently has sufficient liquidity and is current on all its debt payment obligations," Publisher and Chairman Chris Harte said in a statement Sunday evening.
Harte was responding to a New York Post story Sunday that said the Minneapolis newspaper had hired the Blackstone Group of New York to restructure its balance sheet after failing to meet its debt obligations.
The Post attributed that to unnamed "people familiar with the company."
Harte said in his statement that the Star Tribune, which is owned by Avista Capital Partners of New York, hired Blackstone "to help us evaluate alternatives to our current capital structure, but that hardly merits a conclusion that we are near bankruptcy." He said Blackstone has "substantial expertise" in restructurings through means other than bankruptcy.
Like most major metropolitan newspapers, the Star Tribune has been struggling with declining advertising revenues.
Earlier this year it hired Restructuring Associates, a Washington consulting firm, to help the company work with its unions to cut costs.
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