Running Lee Enterprises thread

And another paper to be named later.

 

Two ownership groups that deserve each other.

 

I wonder if Alden has enough money to refinance the debt of Lee, which is held by Warren Buffet? I wonder if Buffet has a covenant in the loan that allows him to have veto power on any sale. If so, will he exercise it?

This is a quote from Buffet at the time he sold his papers to Lee and lent the company 576 million dollars to pay off their other debtors:

“We had zero interest in selling the group to anyone else for one simple reason: We believe that Lee is best positioned to manage through the industry’s challenges”

It was one reason he decided to sell to Lee. I think Lee, with all its faults, is trying to keep newspapers afloat. I think Alden believes that newspapers will die and they are trying to milk the cow for cash until death.

Does Buffett want to have his money tied up with Alden? Ther are two possible reasons that Buffett could object. The first is that he is worried about the impact that the sale will have on local journalism in the affected communities. I believe this to highly unlikely.

The second is that the loan has 24 years to run with a balloon payment at the end. I wonder if Buffett, who to state the obvious, does not like to lose money, trusts Alden to pay him back? Or would Alden pull as much money out of the papers as they can and eventually default on the debt and hand what is left of the company back to Lee?

 

Alden finds value where others don't.

 

So do hyenas.

 

Who would trust Alden with regard to anything?

 

So do necrophiliacs.

ETA: Crap, Regan beat me to the joke - the danger of opening a dozen tabs at once, and ambling my way through.

 

Checking the Lee Enterprises web site, jobs aplenty are posted, mostly production but some in the newsroom. Is there anyone in the Tulsa World building? Hellooo?

 

In the building? No. They all work remotely now. But they actually added a couple of writers in the last few months, I believe. Unfortunately, it seems like every time they get someone new into the newsroom, they lose someone else. Or two or three someone elses.

 

Up here in Wisconsin the company has posted something like 50 jobs in the last 30 days. The company has a mothership (Madison) surrounded by two moons (LaCrosse, Racine) and half a dozen smaller satellites. All are looking for help.

 

Oh, trust me, I know. The design centers have a bunch of openings right now, too.

 

One thing with Tulsa is that there's a customer service center here that answers calls for the entire company, or most of it. Like most call centers, they're constantly hiring for that.