Editor and Pubisher Magazine online -- Fitz & Jen:

January 19, 2010

Should Newspaper Quality Be Morris Bankruptcy Issue?

Fitz: Morris Publishing Group sailed though its first day in bankruptcy Tuesday getting all its first-day motions approved, allowing them to pay employees and vendors, and with the judge setting an early confirmation date, Feb. 17, for the prepackaged reorganization plan.

But while holders of 93% of $278 million in bond debt may be, if not happy, then at least content to take a serious haircut by swapping those notes for $100 million in new high-interest notes, two St. Augustine, Fla., residents want to slow down the proceedings.

Ed Slavin and Judith Seraphin, CIO and CEO respectively for Global Wrap, a company that shrink wraps buildings for construction and environmental containment, filed a motion late Tuesday to be allowed as interveners in the case.

In a two-page motion they argue essentially that the news coverage offered by the St. Augustine Record has declined in quality and quantity under Morris’ ownership to the point it fails in its civic watchdog function, endangering democracy.

The motion notes that Morris’ Chapter 11 announcement Morris said “readers and advertisers should expect no change” as a result of the filing. “After the debtor’s (Morris) massive indebtedness and resulting low-quality news coverage, the promise of ‘no change’ is an outrage,” the motion says.

In a telephone interview, Slavin gave example after example of the Record’s alleged journalistic failings, and said they justified intervener status. “Rather than being a prearranged bankruptcy package, we think every journalism professor, anyone who is an expert on the newspaper industry should be able to come to court take a look at this plan and say, ‘This doesn’t work,’” Slavin said. “We want to see the Record become a newspaper again, and we want to see the court hear about it from us.”

Morris spokesperson Sandra Sternberg said the company had not seen the motion and had no comment on it. A phone message left with the Augusta, Ga., lawyer for Morris listed on the intervener motion did not immediately return a phone message.