Tribune Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on December 8, 2008, after a highly leveraged takeover and a sharp decline in newspaper advertising.
Tribune owned major newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, and South Florida Sun Sentinel. It also owned television stations and other media assets. In 2007, real-estate billionaire Sam Zell led an employee stock ownership plan that took the company private in a transaction financed with substantial debt.
The 2008 financial crisis intensified existing problems in the newspaper industry. Advertising revenue was falling as readers and advertisers moved online, while Tribune still had large interest and debt obligations. The company’s bankruptcy became one of the largest in the history of American media.
Tribune emerged from bankruptcy in 2012. Its publishing assets were later separated from its broadcasting interests, and the newspaper business eventually became Tribune Publishing, which was acquired by Alden Global Capital in 2021.