The company website declares "Since 1867", but recent news shows that The Minneapolis Star Tribune, known also as Star Tribune or Strib, is on the brink of bankruptcy.
Many knew when The McClatchy Co. sold the Star Tribune, in 2006, to Avista Capital Partner, at an unbelievably low sale price that the paper was in trouble.
In 1998, McClatchy bought the paper and paid $1.2 billion, yet the sale price to Avista was just $530 million.
The broadsheet is unlikely to shutter its doors, but its creditors, including the banking giant Credit Suisse Group, figure to eventually end up controlling the paper. Down the road, the creditor group could then sell it after dramatically cutting costs.
The private-equity firm Avista Capital Partners, run by former Credit Suisse deal maker Tom Dean, purchased the Star Tribune from the McClatchy Co. in 2006 for $530 million. The New York firm, which put up $100 million of its own money and borrowed the rest, stands to lose its entire investment, sources said.
The Strib's circulation during the work week, dropped by 6.74 percent in a six month period ending on March 31, 2008 and restructuring experts believe that Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News, could also be meeting the same fate shortly.
A recent article in Editor and Publisher shows that the Strib is not the only paper suffering either.
The New York Times lost more than 150,000 copies on Sunday. Circulation on that day fell a whopping 9.2 percent and their weekday circulation declined 3.8 percent.
The Washington Post, daily circulation decreased 3.5 percent and their Sunday circulation dropped 4.3 percent.
The New York Post lost over 3 percent daily and more than 8 percent on Sunday.
The Orange County Register's daily circulation declined by 11.9 percent and their Sunday circulation dropped 5.3 percent.
The LA Times daily circulation dropped 5.1 percent and Sundays circulation dropped 6.0 percent.
The San Francisco Chronicle's daily circulation dropped 4.2 percent and Sunday's circulation dropped 3.0 percent.
On and on the major media outlets top news papers declined and yet a few papers managed small gains.
Those were the Baltimore Sun, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, all of which showed very modest gains.
With the Internet gaining traction, media print newspapers are losing advertising revenue and well as circulation due to the easy access of news found around the Internet.
Poll after poll has shown that most people do not trust the media as much as they used to, and that is not only in the US but some polls tracked results in 128 countries which showed a propensity of respondents to distrust the media. with Canada's media being one of the few that over 56 percent of respondents showed trust in.
The Sacred Heart University Poll conducted in January 2008 showed that American's are very distrustful of how the media reports.
They saw:
* Growing media attempts to influence public opinion and policies
* Poor quality
* A strong liberal bent in most media
* Fox News, CNN and NBC as the most accurate
The perception is growing among Americans that the news media attempts to influence public opinion – from 79.3% strongly or somewhat agreeing in 2003 to 87.6% in 2007.
Between the Internet resources growing, the decline in advertising revenue and circulation for the traditional, major newspapers, and the distrust people have for the media as well as people believing the media is no longer doing their job of reporting the news, but are instead, trying to influence readers... it is no huge surprise to many that newspapers are losing their readership and their trustworthiness is being doubted more and more.
The Strib is in trouble, but there is no doubt that as the Internet continues to grow, news hungry readers will continue to find an alternate method of obtaining their news if they do not find the older, more traditional venues to be worthy of their trust, and other mainstream media outlets will find themselves in the same position as the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
(H/T Hot Air)