McClatchy bankruptcy won’t stop SLO Tribune from bringing you the news
The McClatchy Co. and its 30 local news organizations — The Tribune included — on Thursday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The announcement was a long time coming, and while a sad end to family control after 163 years, it’s also a new opportunity.
After years of trying to navigate a changing news environment while managing onerous debt and pension obligations, this bankruptcy reorganization removes an albatross around the company’s neck.
That, in many ways, is a good thing, though still more bitter than sweet.
Critics may seize this opportunity as a told-you-so moment, claiming it the result of a litany missteps on the part of individual properties or McClatchy. Nothing could be further from the truth.
McClatchy isn’t filing for bankruptcy because of editorial or business decisions made here, in Sacramento or in any of the other 28 newsrooms around the country.
It isn’t because some people think our American democracy is better off with a weakened free press.
And this day didn’t arrive because we have plenty of other sources to turn to and local news is dead. It’s not.
The Neiman Lab, which is part of the Neiman Foundation at Harvard, recently looked at producers of local news in 100 communities across the country and found that local newspapers create about half of all original local news stories, even though they represent only a quarter of the total number of local news creators. Despite the economic hardships that local newspapers have endured, they remain, by far, the most significant providers of journalism in their communities.
McClatchy got caught in the grip of a digital transformation that saw Facebook and Google capture 77 percent of what used to be local advertising share. That, combined with an acquisition of the Knight Ridder newspaper chain in 2006 just before the Great Recession, led to untenable debt and pension obligations.
And so, a public company led by a passionate news family will transition as it emerges from bankruptcy.
We may not know all what that entails right now, but I can say this to supporters in San Luis Obispo County:
We aren’t going anywhere. The Tribune is still profitable and we continue to reach millions of people a month.
Those who come to work each day, seven days a week, to serve the news needs of this community are deeply committed to it. We have changed corporate parents before, and now we will again, emerging in a financial condition that makes us healthier going forward.
We remain as committed to telling the important stories of the Central Coast as ever, working to hold our public leaders accountable, responding to critical news when it happens and searching for those moments of delight that make our county such a special place.
Nothing has changed in how we approach that calling.
Those of us who work under The Tribune banner will not waver in that pursuit.
Another thing that hasn’t changed is how much we rely on your support.
Now more than ever, we need citizens to invest in the health of their communities and support independent journalism. One of the foundations of a robust society is an independent, mission-driven local news organization.
For all of you who already subscribe, thank you.
If you aren’t yet a subscriber, the best way to do that is through our digital offering, which gives you access to all of our content, whenever, wherever and however you want it, through our newsletters, on our app or even via our newspaper replica e-edition.
You can sign up for as little as $1.99 a month to start at https://sanluisobispo.com/subscribe.
We plan to be here for many years to come, and we hope you’ll be right there with us.
This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 10:15 AM.
