Morris out of bankruptcy

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) - Morris Publishing Group said Tuesday that it has emerged from under bankruptcy protection.

The group is the parent company of the Brainerd Dispatch, the Lake Country Echo of Pequot Lakes and the Pine River Journal.

A judge last month approved a prepackaged debt restructuring for the Georgia-based publisher of 13 daily newspapers.

The company has spent the past year formulating a plan to shed $288.5 million in debt - or about 70 percent of its total of $415 million. The plan allows Morris' owners to keep control of the privately held company.

"Yesterday, we completed our formal debt restructuring, with Morris Publishing emerging with a significantly de-leveraged balance sheet," company chairman William S. Morris III, said in a statement.

Under the plan confirmed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court last month, about $278.5 million in bonds and accrued and unpaid interest has been canceled in exchange for $100 million in new secured notes due in 2014, according to Morris.

Morris Publishing has 1,847 full-time employees and 335 part-time workers.

The newspaper group was founded in the 1940s when William S. Morris Jr. purchased The Augusta Chronicle, where he began working as a bookkeeper in 1929. His grandson, William S. Morris IV, is Morris Publishing's CEO.

The company has daily newspapers in eight states - Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, South Carolina and Texas - as well as more than 60 non-daily newspapers and magazines. The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville is the company's largest newspaper.