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In a telephone conversation with executives of his newspapers, Eason sounded relentlessly chipper, and he emphasized that all his company seeks from bankruptcy is the opportunity to restructure its debts. Liquidation is not being considered. “This is a profitable business,” he declared. “The company has a good cash flow. It has a good market position. Online revenues more than doubled in the last year.” But print revenues have fallen off dramatically over the past year at Creative Loafing and throughout the newspaper business. He said in the past three months total revenues were down 10 to 15 percent from the same months a year ago.
Would Creative Loafing be filing for bankruptcy if it hadn’t bought the Reader and City Paper? I asked Eason. He didn’t answer directly, but he conjectured that any owner would be facing the same tough climate. And the old owners wouldn’t have had the benefits of scale — benefits that made adding to Creative Loafing’s existing chain seem like such a good idea to Eason a year and a half ago.
