Pulp Continues to Retreat II

Well it continues, the long march to tree grinding oblivion. This time reported by the Washington Times. Much was a rehash of our last reportage. But there are some interesting bits –

Tribune, meanwhile, told its employees Wednesday that it hoped to wring more value out of its “underutilized” real estate in Chicago and Los Angeles, extending an asset-selling program Tribune is pursuing to service a $13 billion debt load, much of which it took on from going private.

Tribune already has reached a deal to sell one of its largest newspapers, Long Island, N.Y.-based Newsday, but ran into delays early this month in liquidating Wrigley Field, where the Chicago Cubs play, when negotiations for the field’s purchase by a state agency broke down over financing. Tribune also is moving to sell the Cubs.

Tribune has enough money to meet its debt requirements this year, bond analysts have said, but it must make headway on asset sales in order to meet its obligations in 2009.

Tribune’s troubles reflect broader problems in the industry, where a deepening economic downturn is worsening losses from a long-term shift away from print advertising toward online, especially in classified categories like help wanted, autos and real estate, where rivals such as Craigslist, Move.com and AutoTrader .com are thriving.

So one of the bigger publishers, Times Co., is preparing to sell off assets to fund ongoing operations. Keep in mind that selling off the Cubs is like giving up a license to grow assets. Its a monopoly in 4th largest market in the country. Personally I would keep the team and sell the paper. But I digress….

The die is already cast folks. EBay and CraigsList are already entrenched in the ad space formerly owned by the local papers. I can post an ad for nothing on CraigsList for 30 days vs $9.95 for a week in the same market with the home town paper. Who ya think I am going to pick? The other problem of course is one of the largest ad buyers, auto/transportaton, is taking a heavy hit both with sales and the impact of high gas prices. That venue will probably not come back.

The outlook looks poor for pulp. I will provide an opinion piece later this week on what I think replaces the pulp media.

Linky.