Things look bad for McClatchy, but no one is uttering the "C" word

Yesterday's financial report issued by The McClatchy Company, owners of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, the Miami Herald and 28 other daily newspapers, was "far worse than analysts had anticipated," but nowhere in the reports is anyone mentioning closing any of the publications.

What is does question is whether McClatchy "will be able to generate enough cash to keep its lenders happy through the rest of the year."

Here's what appears to me the most dire paragraph in this report:

Falling out of compliance could force McClatchy to enter prickly negotiations with its lenders, as it had to do last fall to win greater flexibility at the cost of higher interest rates and requirements for more collateral. (Fitch Ratings analyst Mike) Simonton said those lenders might be reluctant to give the publisher much more leeway because of the widespread decay eating away at the newspaper industry.

I'm not sure what all that means, but it doesn't sound like it means the Startlegram won't see the beginning of 2010 -- at least not to me.