Local media

The Star Tribune has financial difficulties.

The Star Tribune said it skipped a $9 million quarterly debt payment to senior creditors to save cash as it tries to restructure its debt.

All options were on the table, including a bankruptcy filing, Chairman and Publisher Christopher Harte told the Minneapolis newspaper in a story published Wednesday.

Harte said the newspaper is profitable, but it's carrying $432 million in debt. Avista Capital Partners, which bought the state's largest newspaper in March 2007, doesn't disclose revenue and expense figures for the Star Tribune.

The newspaper defaulted on its loan agreements earlier this year and stopped making payments to junior lenders in June, a move that media analyst Mike Simonton of Fitch Ratings said could be ceding a good bit of control over the company to its lenders.

"If they are unable to make a payment within a specified grace period, that would be an event of default," he said. "That puts the bank in the driver's seat."