Tribune: 'Where Are We Going Here?'

On Monday the Tribune Co had a $70 million payment due and even although it had the financing lined up to handle the payment, executives decided instead that it would be better off reorganizing under bankruptcy protection. As of Dec 8, the Tribune's total assets were $7.6 million while total debts were ~$13 million. Tribune's bank creditors reads like a list of firms that could surely use the money they're owed in this credit crunch. As word of Tribune Co.'s bankruptcy filing reached the Chicago Tribune newsroom Monday, there were constant reassurances from management that things sounded worse than they are. "They're telling us, it's business as usual," said one journalist. "As long as we're making money, we'll get out of this." But outside the newsrooms of Tribune's sprawling media business, observers saw the bankruptcy filing as a chilling harbinger of financial failure that could spread well beyond Tribune Tower.