Downingtown Ledger: Unknown

Downingtown, Penn.
Owner: Journal Register Co.
Effective: January 2009
Journal Register closed 34 papers in January.
Source: Lancaster New Era

3 local weeklies to keep publishing

Published: Feb 23, 2009 10:56 EST

By CHAD UMBLE, Staff Writer

The Elizabethtown Chronicle, Donegal Ledger and Columbia Ledger will continue to publish even as their parent company enters bankruptcy.

Yardley, Pa.-based Journal Register Company said Saturday that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying advertising and readership drops forced the decision.

The company’s revenues were off 10 percent in 2008, following two years of declines.

Journal Register owns 20 daily newspapers and 159 non-daily publications, including the West Chester Daily Local News. Its largest paper is the New Haven Register, based in Connecticut.

“Our business will continue its normal operations and we will publish content as usual throughout this process,” James W. Hall, chairman and chief executive officer of Journal Register Company, said in a prepared statement.

In January, Journal Register closed 34 publications, including the Solanco Sun Ledger, Parkesburg Post Ledger, Coatesville Ledger, Downington Ledger and Oxford Tribune.

That month, the Journal’s Hershey Chronicle was bought by the Hummelstown Sun, which closed the Hershey paper and began distributing the Hummelstown Sun to its subscribers.

The company said last month’s closings reduced full-time staff by 112 and resulted in $6.4 million in annual savings.

But it wasn’t enough.

Hall said that after considering the remaining alternatives, “a Chapter 11 filing was a necessary and best course of action for Journal Register Company.”

The bankruptcy plan, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, outlines a method for reducing indebtedness by $420 million.The plan says the company will cancel its stock and become a closely held company owned by its lenders, Bloomberg News reported.

Journal Register listed debt of as much as $1 billion and assets of between $100 million and $500 million in its Chapter 11 documents.

The Journal Register’s three remaining Lancaster County papers had been publishing on a “week-to-week” basis since January, employees said.

Edward J. Yocum, Journal Register’s senior vice president and general counsel who was handling inquiries about the bankruptcy, did not return a message left this morning for comment.

Journal Register acquired most of its Lancaster County papers in 2001 when it bought Chesapeake Publishing Corp. of Elkton, Md.

Staff writer Chad Umble can be reached at cumble@LNPnews.com or 481-6031.