Emerging media

Star Tribune Mon, 05 May 2008 03:52:45 GMT
Star Tribune hires Blackstone Group to analyze its finances

Newspaper owners dispute the New York Post's report of pending bankruptcy, and said lenders don't wish to take over the paper. Faced with sliding advertising revenue amid a continuing slowdown of the newspaper industry, the Star Tribune said Sunday that it has hired an adviser to evaluate its finances. The hiring of the Blackstone Group, a New York private equity firm, comes as the Star Tribune struggles to make debt payments under loan terms struck slightly more than a year ago, when projections showed the newspaper making more money than it is today. The Blackstone announcement came after a Sunday story in the New York Post said the newspaper had failed to meet its debt obligations and was near bankruptcy. Star Tribune publisher and chairman Christopher Harte said the Star Tribune has not filed for bankruptcy, nor is it about to. "The Star Tribune currently has sufficient liquidity and is current on all its debt payment obligations," Harte said in a statement issued Sunday afternoon. Pressed further, he said the newspaper would not miss a debt payment this year unless things worsened.

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