Brown Publishing Company has nearly 50 newspapers in Ohio. Among them are several in the Miami Valley and surrounding area. They include:
Beavercreek News-Current
Centerville-Bellbrook Times
Eaton’s The Register-Herald
Englewood Independent
Fairborn Daily Herald
Greenville Advocate
Huber Heights Courier
Kettering-Oakwood Times
Mechanicsburg’s The Telegram
Piqua Daily Call
Sidney Daily News
Springboro Sun
Tipp City’s Sunday Record Herald
Troy Daily News
Urbana Daily Citizen
Vandalia Drummer News
Wilmington News Journal
Wright-Patterson AFB Skywriter
Xenia Daily Gazette
Newspaper publishers Brown Media Holdings Co. and Brown Publishing Co. have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief and plan to sell their assets to a bidder chosen by the companies.
The Cincinnati-based, family-owned companies — which own several newspapers in the Miami Valley including the Beavercreek News-Current, Centerville-Bellbrook Times, Kettering-Oakwood Times, Springboro Sun, Englewood Independent, Huber Heights Courier and the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Skywrighter — filed Friday, April 30, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York. They say the unnamed bidder will assume most liabilities.
The sale involves all the companies’ assets in Ohio, New York, Texas, South Carolina, Illinois, Iowa, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Wyoming.
Chief Executive Roy Brown says the decision was made to help ensure the businesses are “best positioned to prosper in the years ahead.”
Mike Savage, who manages 15 newspapers as publisher over Brown Publishing’s Times Community Newspapers and Greene County dailies divisions, said he could not answer questions about the bankruptcy filing.
“We have no plans to disrupt our operations,” he said Saturday, directing questions to a corporate official in Cincinnati, who could not be reached for comment.
Savage said he will meet Monday with approximately 75 editorial, advertising and graphics employees in his newspaper group, who work in offices in Kettering, Xenia, Englewood, Vandalia and Wright-Patterson.
“What I believe is it’s business as usual,” he said. “That’s what I’m going to convey to my employees on Monday.” He said he will try to “put their minds at ease.”
Savage said no announcement was made to employees in advance, noting many were finding out about the filing by reading it in their newspapers. Savage and other publishers received a news release about the bankruptcy filing late Friday night with instructions to publish it as soon as possible. The notice ran Saturday in newspapers including Fairborn, Xenia, Troy, Piqua and Urbana.
Savage said he has worked for Brown since 2002 when it was an Ohio newspaper chain but, since then, it has expanded to many more states.
The newspaper industry “has really been challenged in the last five years,” Savage said. “Our core customer is the local mom and pop business. They’ve been struggling with a tough economy and it’s reflected in our ad revenues.”
Still, he said he sees “no reason to panic” because of the filing.
“We’re not the first company to have gone through this,” he said, pointing to Chrysler, General Motors Corp. and the Tribune Co., which runs the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. “These are bumps in the road.”
Brown said in a statement that ran in the newspapers that during the past two years, “our employees have battled the effects of an unprecedented economic and financial crisis.”
Brown, who called the decision “a difficult one for the Brown family and the companies’ shareholders,” thanked employees and customers for their past and ongoing support.
“It is with their interest preeminently in mind that we have pursued this course.”
The notice said the companies “have sufficiently strong cash balances, positive operating cash flows and debtor in possession financing in place to finance the bankruptcy process.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2094 or mkissell@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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