January 19, 2009: Avista Capital Partners says slumping revenue in a brutal climate for newspapers everywhere forced the bankruptcy of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune -- but media economist Robert Picard isn't buying it.
Picard also believes the bankruptcies of Tribune Co. last month and the Star-Tribune now are not necessarily harbingers of more newspapers filing Chapter 11. Both companies, he notes, are operated by chief executives new to the newspaper business, Tribune's Sam Zell a real estate businessman and the Avista partners private equity investors.
It wasn't the economy, but Avista's own business decisions that brought the Strib to bankruptcy, Picard argues.
Read the full article at Editor & Publisher.
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