Rachel Blair, reporter
Haley Athens, editor
ROME — The Rome News-Tribune could be sold, a principal owner of the daily newspaper, Burgett Mooney, said.
The newspaper’s parent company, News Publishing Co., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Jan. 1 of this year, listing more than $10 million in debt to 250 creditors, according to documents filed with the courts.
An Oct. 31 deadline for submitting a plan for reorganization has come and gone, indicating that a sale might be afoot.
The latest deadline’s passing without comment, “combined with the departure of the publisher and ad director of the newspaper, tells us something about the future of Rome News-Tribune,” said John Druckenmiller, editor and owner of Hometown Headlines, a local news website, and formerly the managing editor of the Rome News-Tribune.
Druckenmiller said a change in ownership is a possibility.
In August and September, Advertising Director Michael Schuttinga, Sports Editor David Dawson and Executive Editor Otis M. Raybon Jr., all resigned from the newspaper. These could be cost-cutting moves to better position the newspaper better for a sale, according to Brian Carroll, a professor of journalism at Berry College.
Big bills
The top creditor, Northwest Georgia Capital is owed more than $4 million. The other creditors in the top five are:
- United Community Bank, $886,000
- Citizens First Bank, $860,000
- Greater Rome Bank, $825,000
- News Publishing Pension Plan. $784,000
Burgett Mooney, president of News Publishing Co. and, with other members of his family, an owner of the company, said that he and his co-owners are attempting to find a solution that works for everyone as soon as possible.
“We’re working towards a plan,” he said, declining to give a date for when that plan might be completed and submitted to the court. However, Mooney said that no matter what, the newspaper will survive.
“The only thing that might change is ownership,” said Mooney, the third generation of his family to own and operate the newspaper. “But the bankruptcy guarantees that the business keeps going. That was the whole point of filing Chapter 11. If we’d wanted to close the business, we’d have filed a Chapter 7 [liquidation] and have been done with it.”
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Burgett Mooney,
president of News Publishing Co.
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Mooney said specifics about who might buy the company remain private.
If the newspaper were to liquidate and shut down, the community would lose its voice, said Steven Hames, advisor to Berry College’s Viking Fusion multimedia news website and a technologist with the department of Communication. The newspaper’s woes are not unusual, he said.
“The print newspaper industry is in decline,” Hames said. “It’s not dead; it’s just evolving.”
Mooney said the paper’s financial state is “part of business,” and that financial difficulties are not new to the newspaper industry. Newspapers everywhere are being forced to adapt to keep up with technology and changes on the Internet, he said.
In another possible sign of readying for a sale, the newspaper’s website recently merged with that for Northwest Georgia News, which News Publishing Co. also owns.
As for putting out a daily newspaper, “our responsibility is to carry on business as usual,” Mooney said. “There are no changes. We may focus more on advertising going forward, but there’s nothing we’re doing differently.”
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Rome News-Tribune bankruptcy reorganization timeline
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