GateHouse Media Inc., owner of the Newton TAB and hundreds of other community newspapers and websites, is restructuring its $1.2 billion debt in a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing with plans to spin off into a new company.
Newton TAB publisher files for bankruptcy with plans for a new company
by Greg Reibman | Sep 6, 2013 | Newton TAB | 6 comments
The bankruptcy was earlier than I anticipated, though in my defense I wasn’t expecting Fortress Investment Group buying up more newspapers.
I only hope that this newspaper buy works out better for Fortress than the Gatehouse investment.
Anytime I felt worried about my investment in Lee Enterprises, I said to myself “At least it isn’t Gatehouse Media”.
@josh: It must be hard being the smartest person in Newton.
When I started at GateHouse about six years ago the stock was about $28 a share. Now it’s about five cents.
You would have thought at some point a while ago someone at GateHouse would have said something like “Hey fellas, I think we are doing something wrong…” or at least the investors would have done something.
I would have expected mass axing of the top brass, but unlike cream, incompetence seems to rise to the top and get stuck there.
Greg, it is harder than you think.
Mike & Greg, Billion Dollar debt funded acquisition sprees can be hazardous to a company’s financial health. I first looked at Pulitzer Inc in the late 1990s because its flagship paper (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) was the only major daily newspaper in St. Louis. I figured that being the only major daily newspaper in a major metro area gave it some potential for above-average profits however its profits did not live up to its advantageous business model.
Fast forward a few years later Lee Enterprises buys them out for $1.46 billion using debt. Fast forward a few more years later, Lee Enterprises filed for bankruptcy but exited bankruptcy after a month. I never heard of Lee Enterprises until last June. Lee was a former blue chip company but now it is a special situations deleveraging play.
WHEN GAIL SPECTOR AND REIBMAN WERE AT THE TAB
A HISTORY THAT WAS NOTED AND IN THE TAB FILES
both Spector and Reibman strongly supported setti warren….inventing the term
“we may be losing our rock star mayor [setti warren] “… see newton tab
i wrote many pieces that the tab parent based on sec filings was heading to bankruptcy…
these two folks then editor/publisher ignored their fate and caused newton to ‘bandwagon’ a man without any more talent than a dead rock to what you now have,,,setti warren.a PD following Lowell, no longer number one, and a school system in a death spin….failed ratings and porn……take away the smile from warren and you have empty space in place of both creativity and progress ! spector/rebman thru the tab placed helped in office a man who has created more chaos than anyone who ever occupied the office of mayor….and then, apparently both spector/reibman were first on board the warren fatal destroyed humiliating campaign of setti warren for senate nominee of the democratic party…warren rushing to DC and meeting kerry who allegedly encourage the fatal fling on your bucks, as pictured in the Tab…..both spector and rebman are gone…leaving behind setti warren who should follow the process and leave newton…a snap since setti warren who raised your real estate taxes pays….none..no real estate to sell…….good folks are seeking the office of mayor and if common sense wins the day…setti warren will follow warren to a new venue and leave the Garden City to bright, brainy, intel folks who like Teddy Mann loved newton….never running from his love of this city as did warren less than 10 months after he took an oath to serve and love newton….something setti warren cannot do now or ever! we can do better and take back newton from a failed setti warren and now a failed tab, his paper of support….all in the trash can of our nation….unp
Somebody buy that man a sentence.