More from Lean Dean

that's the beauty about all this ... we are different.

 

I don't wish cancer upon any of them simply because it's too good an end for them.

 

I think the cancer analogy might be better suited for what is going on in the newspaper industry itself.

 

You've got to believe that guys like Singleton (as in, all newspaper owners) have a doomsday plan ready, in which they can get out and preserve as much capital as possible. Too bad that doomsday, when it comes, won't neatly coincide with all of our career arcs.

Once the Titanic ran out of lifeboats, everyone else was f---ed.

 

Lean already has a track record of shutting down places, so I'm sure it's in his "plans" somewhere.

 

Singleton's still leveraged to all hell - if I was looking to get out and I didn't have a buyer I'd turn the operation into a non-profit corp. or some business structure similar to the Green Bay Packers.

 

Despite the slashing, burning and consolidating -- thanks to him -- Lean says, "It's not a dying business; it's a changing business."

Tell that to those getting laid off.


http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_6624025

 

If he's still leveraged out, which would be surprising because he's owned most of his papers for a while now, then going non-profit gives him nothing. He doesn't even get to cash out.

 

I'm no CPA, but I don't think he's in a position to cash out. He's been buying papers for more than 20 years like those guys on the late-night "how to build wealth" seminars who purchase financially-stressed properties. I think his objective has been cash-flow. I don't seem him selling any of his papers for more than he paid. And since his empire is private, nobody really knows what the books say anyway.

 

Wow. Objection. Statement without fact.
He could sell the property his papers sit on -- just the property -- and never have to work another day in his life. And throw in his children. They would never have to work, either.

 

Nah, the kids are for sale, too.

 

Touche.