Hat tip to Politics in Minnesota's Sarah Janecek for today's media scoop: Pat Lopez, the paper's chief political correspondent, will take over Doug Tice's old job as politics/government editor. Tice moved to the editorial page staff last month.

According to Janecek, "The rest of the top-notch political coverage team remains: Kevin Diaz and intern Eric Roper in Washington, and Mark Brunswick, Kevin Duchschere, Pat Doyle and Mike Kaszuba."

Strib managing editor Rene Sanchez says Lopez's slot will be filled, meaning the political team won't shrink. The newest posting says applicants can be internal or external. Given journalism carnage nationwide, even a bankrupt paper should be flooded with applicants.

Lopez's ascension — which occurred the same day the Supreme Court released its recount verdict — comes at an opportune time. While the political crew is understandably exhausted after a seemingly endless election season, the paper has some repositioning to do as 2010 approaches.

Sanchez and Lopez say they plan to further emphasize original reporting. You often hear that these days, but it's the right way to go. The Strib can't be the paper of record anymore, and shouldn't even try. It will be a good sign if we see more wire service pieces in the Strib about workaday Capitol happenings — as long as that frees the staff to unearth unique facts.

While it is secondary to great reportage, the Strib's virtual absence from the social-media conversation is also holding its staff back.

MPR and the Pioneer Press have only helped their public profile via the tart (yet apolitical) blogging of Tom Scheck, Bob Collins and Rachel Stassen-Berger. Believe me, I understand the horror of dumping blogging on an already-scrambling reporter, but journalism's goal is to tell people what things mean, and a well-constructed social-media presence can be one of the most efficient ways to do that.

It's a cliche that news is becoming more of a conversation, but it's also true, and the Strib should be able to walk (report) and chew gum (explain, provoke, discuss). And it needs to show its favorite pudding flavor isn't tapicoa.

Heck, take the tartest tweets or posts as the foundation of a brisk Sunday roundup — the Strib hasn't had one of those in years. With news columnists de-emphasizing politics, it's even more needed, even if ideology must be eschewed.

While we're at it, the Strib needs to blow up some long-teetering efforts.

Begin with the Big Question, which was a draw when Eric Black and Tice were batting large ideas back and forth. Both chin-strokers are gone from the newsroom, and BQ has become a zombie, occasionally staggering to life when a staffer dumps in a random post. The questions are no longer big, and time has fatally weakened the brand. Shoot it in the head. Now.

Likewise, Politically Connected — a branding exercise in advance of the 2008 campaign — hasn't become a real go-to destination. However the Strib chooses to corral its online political coverage (I'm no visionary here), it needs to give it more verve, imagination and identity. Personality does not compromise great reporting; knowing some of these reporters behind-the-scenes, I'd love to see that reflected.

I know partisans will want me to scream louder that the Strib should call b.s. on the other side, but I guess my honest explanation is that I don't mind neutrality-worshipping fact gatherers in our increasingly opinionated midst.

Unlike Tice, who came from conservative column-writing, Lopez's politics are traditionally opaque; though she votes, she won't even tell her kids which arrows she connects.

I'm a cards-on-the-table guy who never wanted to spend the energy hiding my opinions, but there are unquestionably strategic advantages in guarding your hand. It doesn't mean a great reporter can't speak plainly, or engage with the audience (the non-frothing segmment, anyway) to the benefit of both. That's the person I'd hire.

Encouragingly, Lopez says she plans to "re-evaluate all these things to see what's the most effective." With a governor's race, unallotment's real-world impacts and a Pawlenty presidential bid lurking right around the corner, it's never been more necessary.

Taking dead aim at reports that flared Wednesday (including here), Pioneer Press owner Media News Group denies it might use bankruptcy to get out from under $1.3 billion in debt.

In a late-afternoon media release, Denver-based MNG calls the report "substantially inaccurate in almost all respects," but does not get specific, except to deny the bankruptcy possibility, or a change in company control.

However, MNG acknowledges it is trying to get creditors to accept an unspecified stake in the struggling media conglomerate.

The industry publication Debtwire reported June 24 that "the company is expected to implement its restructuring through a pre-arranged or pre-packaged bankruptcy filing," according to an unnamed "lender and a sellside analyst."

In recounting the Debtwire piece this morning, Michael Roberts, a reporter for the Denver alt-weekly Westword, wrote, "This move doesn't mean MediaNews is definitely filing for bankruptcy — far from it."

Debtwire's Chloe Lutts and Hema Oza also reported that MNG stopped making loan amortization and bond interest payments March 31; subsequent payments were due Tuesday and Wednesday. The reporters said lenders were allowing payments to be postponed only through Sept. 30.

The release says the company "remains in compliance with its bank agreements while refinancing discussions continue."

Here's the release:

MediaNews: No bankruptcy, no management change
MediaNews release

July 1, 2009

DENVER, CO ... A media report on Wednesday, citing rumors from unnamed sources, reports that MediaNews Group has proposed a refinancing plan to its bank lenders that would cause a change in control of the company and possibly involve a bankruptcy filing.

The story is inaccurate in almost all respects. As previously reported, MNG is in discussions with its bank lenders to restructure its balance sheet, including an exchange of some of its bank debt for equity in the company.

Proposals to the company's lenders do not include a change in control of the company, nor do they include proposals for any bankruptcy filings, as the rumors suggest.

MediaNews Group remains in compliance with its bank agreements while refinancing discussions continue.

Meanwhile, at the bankruptcy west of the river, the Star Tribune is reporting that management wants to toss out another labor contract over pension issues.

This time, it's the machinists' union, a 16-person local that reporter Steve Alexander notes is that last holdout at 425 Portland.

According to court docs, the pattern established in the pressmen's and drivers' disputes is again playing out. The union has agreed to cuts: $475,000 annually — half from four buyouts, the rest from remaining employees. (This works out to about $20,000 per survivor.)

Management wants to save $70,000 more by ending its pension contribution and withdrawing from the International Association of Machinists' multi-employer fund.

Most importantly, the Strib wants to avoid a potential multi-million penalty for exiting the increasingly underfunded IAM plan. As in the past, it argues creditors won't assume ownership of the company unless the liability is largely wiped out.

In a classic example of "race to the bottom," Strib restructuring consultant Paul Huffard says the machinists simply can't hold out when other unions have given in.

"The Company’s credibility will be undermined if it permitted the Machinists to remain in the IAM Fund because the Star Tribune’s agreements with nine of its ten unions included an across-the board effort to reduce pension costs," Huffard argues in a filing.

In all likelihood, management will get their way on pensions, as they have in the other cases. Both times, unions eventually cut deals rather than leave it up to the judge, sometimes in exchange for small concessions.

Yesterday, in reporting on the PiPress layoffs, I noted that "there is no indication bankruptcy is imminent" for Denver-based owner Media News Group.

Now, there's an indication.

Via the Denver alt-weekly Westword, subscriber-only industry site Debtwire reports Media News is expected to implement a restructuring "through a pre-arranged or pre-packaged bankruptcy filing." Debtwire cites an unnamed source identified as "a lender and a sellside analyst."

A pre-packaged bankruptcy is one where creditors agree ahead of time to the restructuring plan, rather than hashing things out in court. The site quotes a second unnamed source saying MediaNews is talking to its creditors today about a "preliminary restructuring plan" that would turn an $832 million credit facility and another $450 million in bonds into equity ownership.

It's unclear whether Media News chairman Dean Singleton would remain in charge if this all goes down. Debtwire notes a forebearance agreement delaying creditor repayment ends Sept. 30.

The timing may explain why PiPress management pulled the plug last Thursday on negotiating layoff-forestalling concessions, even though a union vote had been scheduled for week.

Keep in mind, at this point, all I have is Westword's recapitulation of a subscriber-only Debtwire story I can't read based on two unnamed sources. I have calls into Debtwire and Media News for more details.

Westword's Michael Roberts notes that without bankruptcy, MediaNews faces a punishing repayment schedule. Citing a Debtwire-unearthed SEC filing, Roberts breaks repayment out thusly:

♦ A $235 million "revolver," or revolving loan, due December 2009;
♦ A $100 million term loan due December 2010;
♦ Another $147 million term loan due that same month;
♦ A third term loan, this one totaling $350 million, due August 2013;
♦ $300 million worth of 6.875 percent senior sub notes due in 2013; and
♦ $150 million of 6.375 percent senior sub notes due in 2014.

In 2007, the last full year it reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Media News had revenues of $1.3 billion. That number has almost certainly fallen since then, making repayment tougher — and the pressure on local papers that much more excruciating.

It seems highly likely the St. Cloud Times will get hit with layoffs in the wake of today's news that owner Gannett will cut 1,000-2,000 jobs in the company's Community Publishing division.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Gannett's USA Today won't be touched, leaving papers such as St. Cloud's to bear the brunt.

Last month, Gannett whacked its broadcast side, which hit its Twin Cities property, KARE11.

Gannett's stock has tumbled and recent reports suggest the company's debt problem is so intractable the company will have to be broken up.

I'll have more details when they emerge.

As every Minnesota political junkie knows, video news site The Uptake has been the U.S. Senate recount's wall-to-wall coverage champ. But even as Norm Coleman was preparing a graceful concession speech, his press secretary all but put an Uptake reporter against the wall.

Noah Kunin was setting up a tripod at Coleman's backyard news conference Tuesday when press secretary Tom Erickson confronted him.

"He said, 'You're a liberal blog' and you have to leave,'" Kunin recalls. "I could either leave myself, or he would call someone."

In getting his way, Erickson ejected a credentialed member of the Capitol press corps.

"I didn't instantly recognize him — he was emotional," Kunin says of Erickson. "He said something about my cutesy homemade press pass. The one I was wearing was issued by the Minnesota Capitol. It says PRESS in big black letters. It's also a magnetic key card that lets me get into the Capitol after it closes to the public. I also had a red name tag badge specific to the Capitol press corps, issued by the Sergeant at Arms."

I confirmed Kunin's account with two other Capitol press corps members; because they work for mainstream organizations and were not authorized to comment (especially on a political topic), they asked not to be identified. Erickson did not respond to an email and two phone messages left Wednesday.

Kunin says he told Erickson the demand "was not OK on a lot of levels. This is a press conference, and I don't think you get to make that determination. He said, 'This is private property; we get to make the determination.'"

The Coleman campaign played this sort of access game with liberal-identified sites repeatedly during the election. When a politician holds a news conference in a public place — say, the Capitol — anyone can attend. But they purposefully schedule events on private property — a campaign office or, in this case, Coleman's yard — when they want to keep certain reporters out.

Given that The Uptake's chat rooms can become crucibles for Coleman-bashing, it's perhaps no surprise the ex-Senator would want to give the site's journalists the bum's rush.

That doesn't make it any less petty and wrong. If the objective reason for excluding bloggers is that they're belligerent, tendentious or otherwise unprofessional, The Uptake exhibited none of those faults.

Ironically, after the election, Norm's troops seemed to get that. "They stopped throwing up blockades. We were invited into [Coleman lawyer Ben] Ginsberg's background question-and-answer sessions," says Kunin, who even testified in the election contest because his absentee ballot was rejected. "The Senator even thanked us for a good question on nuclear power.

"All of a sudden, we started getting access from other Republicans. We've had Republicans on our shows, and had their comments in our stories. It got to the point where, when the Republican State Central Committee elected new leadership, I showed up and they had a press pass for me — from the Republican Party of Minnesota!"

In a way, it was a watershed moment for both sides. In the 2006 U.S. Senate race, Kunin — then an unaffiliated blogger — was involved in a partisan dustup where he found a publicly available pre-release Mark Kennedy attack ad on a consultant's web site.

"That seems like such old history," Kunin says of the incident, which ultimately amounted to not much. Thanks to his 2008-09 work, "I've been validated. Republicans talk to me now. [Erickson's] reaction was incredibly reactionary and backward-looking, as far as I'm concerned."

Erickson's unprofessionalism put The Uptake in a bind: here, they had lovingly covered 239 days of the recount, but had no way to show the final act.

Coming to the rescue: KARE Vice President and News Director Tom Lindner, who exhibited pure class in letting the site take the station's live feed.

The downside is that Kunin still wasn't there, and thus unable to quiz Coleman about his decision or future plans. Should the ex-Senator run for governor, he'd do well to hire a press staff as classy as the image he tried to project Tuesday.

In the wake of Pioneer Press layoffs today — which took out 7 percent of the newsroom — the paper's journalists are asking the baffling question: why wouldn't ownership let them take concessions to preserve headcount?

Just to close the circle on today's news, here's the rather rueful memo the PiPress Newspaper Guild leadership sent to its members this afternoon, discussing ownership's choice of "an ax instead of a scalpel":

June 30, 2009

Today, the company laid off 11 of our co-workers — nine in the newsroom, one in ad production and one in advertising sales.

Those laid off are: Andrew Pritchard, Jennifer Westpfahl, Emily King, Trisha Collopy, Sara Connolly, Dana Albrecht, Amanda Willis, Phillip Miller and Brandi Thomas from the newsroom; Andrew Schaefer from ad production; and Ellen Aldajuste from advertising sales.

This didn't have to happen. Today, we Guild members were prepared to vote on talking to the company about contract concessions. Instead, late last week, Guild members — including Guild leaders — were blindsided by the company's withdrawal of its request for concessions.

Starting with the initial meeting with Guild leaders, May 20, the company never officially stated a deadline or a real sense of urgency about accomplishing its cost-saving goals by July 1, the start of the new budget year. The only mention of July 1 as a possible deadline was made by Editor Thom Fladung during a newsroom meeting May 20.

At the next meeting with Guild leaders, June 11, the company cut its concessionary request in half to $1.1 million and still did not spell out a specific deadline. Guild leaders told the company we were scheduling a membership meeting June 30 to vote on whether to start bargaining, and again the company did not communicate a sense of urgency.

Clearly, we know how to cooperate — especially during these tough economic times. When the company came to the Guild in February saying it needed cost savings, Guild members voted within 48 hours to go along with the company's furlough request, and 80 percent of the furloughs were taken by the end of March. That Guild effort saved the company $280,000.

With today's layoffs and other workforce reductions that occurred since January, the company has saved about $2.3 million at our expense.

Using average figures, Guild leaders estimate today's layoffs will save the company about $800,000. (Layoffs will cost the company about $100,000 in severance pay.)

We Guild leaders asked the company what else we could have done to avoid today's layoffs, and we were told nothing would have made a difference. We are disappointed and frustrated that the company used an ax instead of a scalpel to achieve cost savings and completely cut Guild members out of participating in a solution that would have been less painful.

Covering the local media's financial troubles, I've come to appreciate the joys of a Standard & Poor's ratings report. As a Twins fan, I'm interested in how the new ballpark is doing. Yesterday, the twain met.

As Bloomberg News' Aaron Kuriloff first noted, the Twins were forced to pump $4 million into their Twins Ballpark LLC following last fall's global economic meltdown, when short-term interest rates spiked wildly.

That's a big cash suck considering a total of $60 million in bonds due in 12 and 14 years hence. Barring another catastrophe, the $4 million gets the Twins to Opening Day, when ballpark revenue will begin paying off the debt.

I know what you're thinking: So that's why we didn't sign that late-inning reliever this winter!

Not true, insists Twins President Dave St. Peter. The players are paid from a separate entity, Twins LLC. While you're forgiven for thinking it all comes from the same Pohlad wallet, St. Peter insists Twins Ballpark LLC funds are not sucked from Twins LLC.

Still, amid new-stadium bubbliness, it's interesting to read an expert outsider's take on how well the Twins can pay their bills.

Overall, I'd characterize as the conclusions as cautiously positive. Here are some highlights, with St. Peter's responses where necessary:

The stadium's bond rating remained unchanged at BBB-minus
There are a couple of ways to frame this. BBB-minus is one step above junk bond status. On the other hand, that's still investment grade, which is more than many other corporations (including media companies) can say amid the meltdown. It's also an accomplishment that the rating remained stable.

The stadium benefits from the Twins established fan base, repayment guarantees and relatively low leverage
Right now, 10-year projections show 2.5 times the amount needed to service the debt, or two times what's needed with designated ticket revenues removed.

That said, the report cites several potential weaknesses:

Since 2002, the team's attendance has grown 2.8 percent, twice the historical average
Why is that a weakness? Because it likely won't continue forever. S&P analyst Jodi Hecht notes the Twins have won the Central Division four times in that span — and such success is unlikely to continue long-term. (Has she been watching this year?)

St. Peter scoffs at the notion the attendance gains won't persist for at least the next several years, given the shiny new ballpark.

Twins attendance has ranged from 2.2 million to 2.5 million between 2002 and 2008. St. Peter acknowledges the Twins are projecting attendance "far north" of two million in the new stadium, which has an annual capacity of about 3.2 million fans (40,000 per game).

You can decide whether you'd go the cautious fiscal analyst route or side with the optimistic team exec.

The team's assumption about local stadium competition is "aggressive"
In other words, the club may be overly optimistic about grabbing dollars as new facilities like the Gopher football stadium and perhaps a Vikes stadium come online. The analysis notes Twins "pricing levels are significantly higher than the current stadium," and may be hard to maintain.

St. Peter challenges this, noting average Target Field prices appear higher because there won't be 15,000 ultra-cheap upper deck outfield seats in the new park. With the exception of some high-priced seats by the field, he says, post-Dome hikes are under 10 percent.

"I'm not aware of any team with a lesser jump" when moving to a new ballpark, St. Peter states. "Most of the time, it's double, triple or quadruple what we're doing."

Having praised Target Field's cheap seats (and witnessed people paying steadily higher Dome prices in recent years), I'd guess the analyst is being cautious given the failure of new New York parks to sell their premium seats.

However, the Twins prices are a tenth of Yankee stadium's. I wouldn't be surprised if they're a tougher sell than the locals thought two years ago, but there won't be a Big Apple-type embarrassment.

Stadium contingency funds are 'adequate to low'
The report praises the team's "maximum price contract" with builder Mortenson Co., but a low reserve might seem scary given the $4 million hit.

Still, the analysis quickly adds that the contingency level is "in line with other stadium and large scale projects."

St. Peter argues, fairly convincingly, that the best evidence backup cash isn't a problem is that the company has put so much into optional improvements: $55 million to be precise, even though the report only credits them with $17 million.

"We wouldn't add those incremental dollars without a high degree of confidence" in ownership's financial strength, he says.

The team's creditworthiness is 'lower than that of the stadium'
That's somewhat ominous because, if you recall, the stadium bonds are rated one level above junk. S&P doesn't have rating on the team, so the danger is difficult to precisely judge.

Still, the document praises management for "implementing practices to improve profitability," adding that team revenues are limited by the local market's size and capacity. Again, St. Peter refers to the lack of penny pinching as proof things are not teetering. Hopefully, the Pohlads' contributions aren't overleveraged!

The team still faces an interest rate risk
All told, 60 percent of this stadium debt is variable interest "swapped to fixed-rate with an imperfect hedge that retains exposure to the change in the spread between LIBOR and SIFMA interest rates."

In other words, if seven-day to one-year interest rates spike, the club will still feel pain. While noting the Twins have suite and club-seat deposits that can cushion a cash crunch until Opening Day, the report states "Overall, interest costs will be higher" than the original pro forma projection.

Tougher sells ahead
Finally, the report notes the team has sold 80 percent of the premium seating and 50 percent of corporate sponsorships — the latter a surprisingly low figure, at least to me.

Many of these deals expire in four to ten years, creating repayment risk down the road, especially if the team is not as attractive when the new-stadium smell wears off. (See: Timberwolves.) Still, such deal lengths are typical in many stadia.

The report also states "sales of remaining inventory will be more difficult to complete than those currently signed."

"Tell me something I don't know," says St. Peter with a chuckle, knowing what every salesman does: the last sales are the toughest. "I'm trying to figure out what the news is there."

Filling in the blanks from this morning's report on PiPress layoffs, here are the details from editor Thom Fladung.

The best-known name is Twins reporter Phil Miller, who is being canned mid-season. Miller and fellow Twins scribe Kelsie Smith are the bottom two reporters, seniority-wise.

But the copy desk was slammed, with five of the nine cuts coming from that area. How many copy editors are even left?

As Fladung notes, "We are going to look to accelerate the integration of our copy desks, which we began several months ago with the sharing of more tasks between the hub and sports copy desk."

Here's the list, which doesn't include product planner Andrew Schaefer, the lone non-newsroom layoff:

Fellow staffers:

I am very sorry to announce that today we laid off nine newsroom colleagues, including:

--- Page designer Dana Albrecht
--- Copy editor Trish Collopy
--- Copy editor Sara Connolly
--- Copy editor Emily King
--- Sports reporter Phil Miller
--- Copy editor Andrew Pritchard
--- Photographer Brandi Thomas
--- Copy editor Jennifer Westpfahl
---- Page designer Amanda Willis

The layoffs are to deal with the challenges we face in this continuingly difficult economy and amid unprecendented change for our industry.

In that, we certainly are not alone in the newspaper world.

That's the reality. But I realize it's little solace. The layoffs bring new challenges to our newsroom. These people are more than just a list of names in an e-mail. They are a talented and productive collection of journalists whose work here included designing dynamic pages, producing memorable photos and videos, covering one of our highest-profile beats in the Twins, writing vibrant headlines and saving us from ourselves by asking good questions and catching and correcting numerous errors of fact and nuance.

We will miss them.

This week, faced with the additional challenge of the holiday, we will be scrambling to fill holes. Going forward, we are going to look to accelerate the integration of our copy desks, which we began several months ago with the sharing of more tasks between the hub and sports copy desk. We also will be going to a more universal approach, with more shared work, with our page designers. And we will continue to look for tasks and work that can be eliminated or streamlined without badly damaging our newspaper, online sites and niche magazines.

Your ideas for that and any other ways we can do our jobs better are most welcome. And as always, I am here for questions. Thom

Turns out yesterday's bad portents were sadly accurate: The Pioneer Press is in the process of laying off nine members of its 138-person newsroom this morning.

Copy editor Andrew Pritchard broke the news on his Facebook page, posting that he "became an ex-journalist at 9:25 this morning. Am told there are eight others."

Overall, PiPress layoffs number ten, including one non-newsroom worker. Aside from Pritchard, I don't have any other names at the moment. Union spokesperson Dave Orrick, declined comment, though his Newspaper Guild will likely release a statement later today.

The scuttlebutt around the newsroom is that reporters and photographers are most likely to be spared, while copy editors, news editors and page designers will most likely feel the pain. This continues a War on Editing that's played out similarly in Strib buyouts and pay cuts.

The move comes on the last day of PiPress owner MediaNews Group's fiscal year. The cash-strapped company is highly leveraged, and in recent months has stopped reporting financial results, though there is no indication bankruptcy is imminent.

While it's cold comfort, ten layoffs would be fewer than the estimated 15-20, based on management's earlier $1.1 million annual savings demand. PiPress survivors are due to get a 1-2 percent raise tomorrow, though there's no guarantee against more pink slips.