Looting of America Continues: Major Newspaper Chain Bankrupt while Execs Collect Millions

The executives who mismanaged one of America’s largest newspaper chains; MediaGroup, and drove it into bankruptcy are walking off with multimillion dollar paychecks.

MediaNews is a holding company that owns 54 daily newspapers and 100 weekly papers. Its most famous publication is its flagship paper The Denver Post. Other prominent MediaNews papers include The San Jose Mercury News and The Los Angeles Daily News.

MediaNews was put together by advertising salesman turned press baron Dean Singleton. Singleton made his money by buying smaller papers and jacking up advertising rates. MediaNews has been bleeding red and wasting money for years.

Singleton’s brilliant strategies at The Denver Post included paying winos to stand on street corners and hound Denver residents into buying The Post in a fraudulent bid to increase “circulation.” He also jacked up advertising rates and drove advertisers away. Meanwhile readers noticed a decline in the quality of writing and journalism. Even though The Post was loosing money, Singleton borrowed heavily to build a fancy new skyscraper as his corporate headquarters in Downtown Denver.

According to Denver’s independent free daily The Denver Daily News Singleton could get up to $1.49 million for his work at MediaNews. Singleton brings home a salary of $994,000 and could collect a $500,000 bonus. Singleton will also get a lot of worthless MediaNews stock as compensation so there is at least some justice.

In the last year journalists and production workers at MediaNews papers have faced layoffs and unpaid furloughs. While journalists and printers are filling out job applications at Kinkos and Wal-Mart, The Denver Daily News reports that MediaNews President Jody Lodovic could collect up to $2.25 million in compensation. Lodovic gets a base salary of a little over $1 million and could collect up to $1.25 million in bonuses.

Like many of America’s rich incompetents Singleton and Lodovic are able to protect themselves through a prepackaged bankruptcy. This legal device could enable MediaNews to pay its creditors many of which are mom and pop businesses that are struggling to survive 19 cents on the dollar. When MediaNews goes down Singleton will still have his fortune, many small business owners will loose everything.

The MediaNews debacle is a perfect example of the looting of America by parasites masquerading as businessmen. Instead of modernizing newspapers, adopting innovative new business plans and improving journalism, Singleton and company artificially inflated circulation figures and used that as an excuse to raise advertising rates. The advertisers went away and the newspapers floundered.

Not surprisingly the sorry facts about MediaNews did not appear on the front page of The Denver Post. Fortunately, Denver residents have a real newspaper which did expose Singleton’s bungling and his shoddy attempt at a cover up.

The Denver Daily News a free newspaper put the news about the bankruptcy on its front page. Unlike The Denver Post the Daily News is an independently owned paper created by local entrepreneurs who took advantage of new printing and computer technologies. Even as the dinosaur Denver Post falls prey to the professional scavengers, The Denver Daily News is thriving and sticking it to Dean Singleton in his own backyard.