Urban Jacksonville

I sat up and took notice when four people emailed me about the Times-Union in a 5 minute span yesterday. The Jacksonville Business Journal reported there is ‘Substantial doubt’ about Morris Publishing

The company had a nearly $10 million in interest payments deferred by its lenders three times this year now due May 28. More than 80 percent of its noteholders also extended the grace period for the same time so the company would not cross-default on its debt to both the lenders and noteholders.

So what will our city do without it’s daily? We may find out in a little under 2 weeks. Personally I’ve given the Times-Union a hard time over the years for being slow, boring, having a bad web presence, etc. I’ve really let them have it at times, but I never wanted them to go away.

In Nothingâ€™s Adding Up For Morris Publishing the commentary is even more dire than the Business Journal article:

Close followers of Fitz & Jen will recall that Morris is on its fifth forbearance from the group of senior lenders led by JPMorgan Chase. On Feb. 1, Morris skipped an interest payment of $9.7 million, and it hasnâ€™t been able to come up with the jack since. Its latest extension runs out May 28, and if it canâ€™t pay up the banks could force it to repay all that $419 million.

But even if Morris somehow can come up with the interest payment, thereâ€™s just more problems ahead.

We’ve already seen Seattle’s Post-Intelligencer fold it’s online division and the Rocky Mountain News close all-together. Even the Boston Globe is in trouble.

However…

A quick search on Twitter reveals this tweet from @editomarilyn, Assistant managing editor for local news at The Florida Times-Union, who’s been tweeting for a couple of weeks now:

Don’t believe everything you read. Tales of Morris Publishing’s demise are greatly exaggerated.

and

… And if you like what we’ve been doing you’ll love what we’re going to be doing.

It seems the full story is yet to be told. Stay tuned as we’ll surely post any updates here. Follow Urban Jacksonville on Twitter for up to the minute news on any developments.

Hang in there Times-Union, and to all my friends there, keep your head up!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 9:32 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Tags: morris publishing, times-union

edliberatori

I think we all have a sentimental attachment to the newspaper but we have to acknowledge that their business model is a dying breed in the media business. Circulation has decreased every year for at least the last 5 years. I, however, cannot feel bad for the Times Union, they stuck it to advertisers for years with annually increasing ad rates and crazy column inch contracts despite downward trending circulation numbers. They had to know that this change to their business model was coming and instead of leading the way.... They decided to ride the fish wrapper horse until it died... They saw craigslist coming and decided to ride the pay for your classified ads horse until it died. I hope that the TU will continue in some capacity... but this was no surprise, all the warning signs were there and, in my opinion, were ignored. I do feel bad, however, for all of the hard working employees they have that are in jeopardy of losing their jobs due to poor decisions by the head honchos...
Brendon

Though some of the top dailies in other cities are folding in, it's not like they're the ONLY dailies in their city. As is the case with TU.

That's the scary part.
biggie tea

I should also mention it is a Brooklyn-based daily.

And also that sign in the pic is salute to bad planning and doesn't show where the Times Union is but where we mowed over a neighborhood.
biggie tea

Don't believe everything you read. I use to say that about the TU!

But I can change.

I think that the jacksonville.com, the editorial department, and the quality of actual journalism has improved a ton in recent years. Investigative work sells papers/hits.

I support the Florida Times Union and its employees and hope they can make it out with both a paper and jobs.

Good luck guys.
Audrey

They've been doing small business focus groups.

So, I think they're trying to change things around.
why oh why

Based on circulation and web traffic numbers, less and less people like or even care what they are doing. Its a sad fact, as much that gets shifted around during these times of distress, little is ever mentioned about improving the core product.

Don’t Believe Everything You Read: ‘Substantial doubt’ about Morris Publishing

However…

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