It’s Independence Day, and the man who owns the Press-Telegram piggybacked the holiday to send employees a Fourth of July Eve memo full of gung-ho slogans and exclamation points, which is about as close as you can come to fireworks in print. But the upshot was shellshock: the three-page memo left most employees with the unsettling feeling that they may soon be a lot more independent than they want to be. The P-T worker who e-mailed the memo to The District slugged it: “MediaNewsObit.”

MediaNews Group, Inc., is the Denver-based corporation that owns Long Beach’s local daily, and it’s in big financial trouble-the result of the ravenous accumulation of newspapers across the country that used what prominent investment banker Mark Young calls “a strategy with an investment thesis that was clearly flawed.” That is, CEO Dean Singleton borrowed against company assets during a time when those assets were losing value. Now the debts are coming due and there may not be enough money to pay. That’s not good.

In fact, about two weeks ago Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its corporate credit rating on MediaNews Group two notches-that’s two more notches; this slide has been going one for awhile–to “CCC.” That’s deep into junk bond territory, and four notches above a default rating. That’s bad.

Singleton’s response in the July 3 memo?

First, blame the ratings:

”It’s our opinion (shared by others) that the ratings agencies have now gone to an extreme and are being overly conservative with their ratings,” Singleton wrote.

Second, blow the trumpets:

“Let us assure you, we are up for the challenge!” Singleton continued.

And then…go on and on with a bunch of vague and contradictory verbiage, which for example urges a team effort while paying empty homage to members of the team who have already been sacrificed and foreshadowing that more teammates will most certainly follow them. Some samples:

“We would rather have less debt. But this is not our first rodeo.”

“With our collective efforts we will lead the charge again!”

“We believe it is possible to improve our products and services and operate more efficiently at the same time.”

“You, our employees, are our most valuable asset. And, if we all work together MediaNews will lead the industry into the future.”

“Remember-together we can!”

Excuse those poor Press-Telegram employees-and the few who are left are, indeed, inching toward poverty-if instead of trumpets they just hear somebody blowing hard.

Tags: Dave Wielenga, dean singleton, Inc., medianews group, press telegram, Standard & Poor's, The District Weekly

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Ben Dover 5 months ago 1 point
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Singleton will sell the PT to Hurst and MediaNews will manage the Press-Telegram, just like the Breeze.

MediaNews in early June hired the Bain & Company, a mergers and acquisitions company that used to be run by Mitt Romney !!!! .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain_%26_Company

http://www.bain.com/bainweb/home.asp

The rumor was Molina was inquiring about the purchase. But a certain publisher recommended against it.

" ICEBERG DEAD AHEAD ! "

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JuanPardell 4 months ago 1 point
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Looks like MediaNews Group is adopting the same fiscal philosophy as Long Beach's city government.

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PTer 4 months ago 1 point
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Just when you think morale can't drop much lower, we get a memo like this. Looks like I'll be slingin' cocktails at Smooths by the end of the year. Ahh what the hell, at least it's more money....

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