The pair assured that the paper would emerge stronger from bankruptcy and that the issue was a simple dispute with a single creditor that had proved unwilling to work with the paper's parent company, Western Communications. Both Costa and Black had sharp words for the bank and its tactics. News of the bankruptcy arrived like a bombshell in Bend where the Bulletin employs hundreds in its operation from journalists to pressmen and delivery drivers. But it also reverberated around the state and the country. Here's what others had to say about the Bulletin's decision to file Chapter 11. (EF)
From the Wall Street Journal, which covered the story on its national bankruptcy blog, Bankruptcy Review:
The publisher of the Bend (Ore.) Bulletin filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday after exhausting negotiations with its biggest lender - triggering a war of words on the newspaper's pages that sings to the spirit of its feisty longtime publisher Robert Chandler.
From the Willamette Week which covered the story on its staff blog:
The Bulletin says it will continue operations. American newspaper bankruptcies are a dime a dozen these days, but what makes this one national news is that the paper's editor, John Costa, wrote an editorial blaming Bank of America for the filing.
From OPB which dedicated last Friday's "Think out Loud" program to the issue with Gordon Black as a guest.
Several papers in the region ran a story yesterday about their parent company, Western Communications. Those papers used the phrase " files for protection" in their headlines, while other outlets covering the story put it more plainly: the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
