New York (AFP)

The American press editor McClatchy announced his bankruptcy Thursday, another sign of the difficulties of the press in the United States, even if the group intends to continue its activity and restructure its debt.

Specialist in local information, the company created in the aftermath of the gold rush in California in 1857 controls 30 press titles in the United States.

She is notably the main shareholder of the Miami Herald, the Sacramento Bee or the Charlotte Observer.

The bankruptcy will allow him to renegotiate his debt, a good part of which is inherited from the 2006 acquisition of the Knight Ridder group, much larger than him, which had enabled him to become the second player in the regional press in the States. -United.

Prisoner of this debt, even reduced since, as well as the cost of its own pension system, the group did not have the financial backbone to negotiate the redesign of its model.

Like most local and regional newspapers, McClatchy has accelerated in recent years its transition to digital, but also to a paid online model.

In one year, it has almost doubled the number of its subscribers to its online service alone, reaching more than 200,000 currently.

But according to preliminary figures published Thursday, McClatchy nevertheless expects a turnover down 12% for the 2019 financial year, weighed down by the fall in advertising revenues (-19%).

Advertising revenue now weighs less than half of what it was just five years ago (-54%).

At the same time, turnover from sales and subscriptions continues to decline (-5% between 2018 and 2019), despite the growth of online subscriptions.

- A merger with a competitor? -

In the document submitted to the federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan, McClatchy presented a list of measures which should allow the group to continue its activity and to exit the safeguard procedure once the restructuring has taken place.

The company will in particular offer its creditors to exchange some of its obligations for new shares in the group, converting debt into capital. The group, whose listing did not resume Thursday, will be delisted from the listing on the New York Stock Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange.

As a result of the restructuring plan, the McClatchy family, still the group's main shareholder and holder of the majority of the voting rights, will cede control to the creditors, mainly the financial company Chatham Asset Management, the company's first creditor.

Asked by AFP about the possible consequences for the use of this plan, a spokesperson said that there were "no job cuts or layoffs associated with this reorganization plan".

Despite this optimistic speech, a merger with another major press group is expected in the medium term, according to Joshua Benton, creator of the Nieman Lab, site on media news related to the University of Harvard.

"Tribune is probably the most likely partner," wrote Joshua Benton on Twitter. The Tribune group, which notably publishes the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun or the New York Daily News, has had a rowdy history for four years, a consequence of the difficulties of the American regional press.

In November, the speculative investment company Alden Global Capital took a 32% stake in the capital, becoming the group's reference shareholder. A few weeks later, the publisher announced a voluntary departure plan.

Now is the time to consolidate the press in the United States more than ever.

The number one local press, Gannett, was bought for about $ 1.2 billion in November by another American media group, New Media Investment Group, to form a juggernaut of more than 250 different publications.

Dan Kennedy, a professor of journalism at Northeastern University, says the debt buyout and shareholder pressure further complicate the challenge of the local press faced with the need to evolve towards a new model.

Newspapers that are not part of a group "find a way to survive," he says, citing the Boston Globe, the Minneapolis Star Tribune or the Salt Lake Tribune. "I wish good luck to the McClatchy newspapers, but the group control model has failed."

© 2020 AFP