The Tribune media group files for bankruptcy protection

The American media group Tribune, owning several influent newspapers – such as Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun – demanded on Monday protection against bankruptcy, newspapers in the group’s portfolio announced. The reasons are the fast decrease of advertising income and the burdening credits accumulated by the company.

„The move opens the most painful episode yet in a tumultuous period at the company that started when the former owners of the Los Angeles Times, which Tribune Co. acquired in 2000, forced the company to seek a restructuring more than two years ago. That process culminated in Zell taking the company private last December in a debt-laden transaction, which exposed the Chicago Tribune parent, a longtime pillar of the city’s business and civic life, to fierce economic forces it couldn’t weather”, Chicago Tribune explains.