I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Freedom Communications, a California-based media company which owns three New Mexico newspapers, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Bloomberg reports that the company, which owns 33 daily newspapers, 70 weeklies and other publications and eight television stations across the nation, owes nearly $780 million.
Freedom and its 49 units’ 30 largest creditors without collateral backing their claims are owed about $779.3 million, according to court documents. JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, as administrative agent for a bank loan, is the biggest with a claim of about $770.6 million. The amount excludes “contingent letter of credit obligations,” court papers show.
The Portales News-Tribune, which along with the Clovis News Journal and the Quay County Sun is owned by Freedom Communications, reports a Freedom Communications press release says, “(The company) has sufficient cash to fund daily operations including post-petition payments to vendors and partners and to meet customer and employee obligations through the duration of the restructuring.”
The problem, Bloomberg says, is an industry-wide advertising slump.
Industry-wide ad revenue fell 29 percent to $6.82 billion in the second quarter from $9.6 billion a year earlier, according to figures released by the Newspaper Association of America. Ad sales dropped 28 percent in the first quarter, the Arlington, Virginia-based trade group said.
