State to fund loan to save ailing newspaper Tuesday, November 10, 2009
By John P. Gregg, Valley News
LINKClaremont – The state of New Hampshire last week agreed to guarantee 75 percent of a $250,000 loan from an Upper Valley bank to the new owner of the Eagle Times, an unusual deal because it involves a daily newspaper and the government it covers.
The Executive Council on Wednesday unanimously approved without debate the “working capital loan guarantee,†which would be administered by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority.
Under the deal, the BFA and the state would be liable to pay up to $187,500 to Connecticut River Bank if Eagle Printing & Publishing LLC defaulted on the $250,000 line of credit it would receive from the bank.
Eagle Printing is the entity created by a small Pennsylvania-based newspaper chain which bought the Eagle and a handful of weekly papers out of bankruptcy in September.
The loan from the Charlestown-based bank, which has had ties to the Eagle’s previous owner and publisher, has not yet been finalized but is expected to close this week, according to Mike Donahue, a senior credit officer at the BFA.
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Uh, not troubled. DEAD. They stopped publication in July. And anyone here think this is a hell of a precedent to bail out guys like the NYT, CNN, Err Amerika, et al? And when that occurs, how much "balance" do you think is going to be left?
