'Independent' owner declares bankruptcy

The slowing economy has taken its toll on Yesse! Communications, the Indianapolis-based parent company of the Bloomington Independent. Last week, the chain of alternative newsweeklies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. \nYesse! CEO Craig Hitchcock said the company will restructure to remain afloat. \n"It's a voluntary filing," he said. "We anticipate moving through the reorganization process. We anticipate to emerge with stronger cash flow, new capital and a plan for growth."\nKnown as "reorganizational bankruptcy," Chapter 11 allows a company to continue business operations while cutting back on costs to resolve its debts and produce returns for its stockholders.\nHitchcock said Yesse! is committed to its three most profitable papers -- the Independent, the Illinois Times in Springfield and the Impact Weekly in Dayton, Ohio.\n"It's not going to affect us," said Times editor William Furry. "It doesn't affect our editorial side."\nAnd the Independent won't be publishing its farewell issue any time soon, editor Cynthia Wolfe said.\n"It's important to distinguish that this is our holding company," she said. "Our revenues have been steadily increasing. It's not going to affect our day-to-day operations."\nFounded as the Bloomington Voice in 1992, the weekly tabloid covers politics and arts in southcentral Indiana, reaching 20,000 readers in the Bloomington area. Privately owned for five years, Yesse! purchased the Independent in 1997 as its flagship paper.\n"Since they're based in Indianapolis, we'd be the last paper they'd ever want to get rid of," Wolfe said. "I'm not sending out any resumes."\nThe bankruptcy hasn't shaken up the mood in the Independent newsroom, Wolfe said.\n"Bankruptcy isn't pleasant news -- it's not what people like to hear," she said. "But no one's panicking."\nYesse! filed for bankruptcy just two months after it chose to pull the plug on Icon, an Iowa City weekly the chain first tried to sell. Hitchcock said the company is looking for a buyer for The Octopus, a smaller-circulation weekly out of Champaign-Urbana, Ill.\nWhen Yesse! straightens out its finances, Hitchcock said it will consider acquisitions in mid-market cities with populations of at least 200,000.\n"We've learned in the past four years that it can be a lot harder to turn things around in the smaller markets," he said. "We spent a lot of time on these papers. We did not buy them to close them down"