Decision looms for ailing Sun-Times group

Time's running out on the bankrupt Chicago Sun-Times.

Hometown investor Jim Tyree has offered the more than a dozen newspaper unions a take-it-or-leave-it proposal to buy the Sun-Times Media Group. But several have already said they'll leave it.

Tyree says all the paper's unions must agree to lock in what were originally intended to be temporary wage cuts and other concessions. Otherwise, he says he'll have no choice but to walk away.

The problem is, they're no other bids on the table.

And Sun-Times Media Group executives warn there's only a matter of weeks to accept the deal before it falls through for good.

Group chairman Jeremy Halbreich says the company's financial situation is dire and it doesn't have the cash to hold out until December.

Sun-Times Media Group Inc., the bankrupt publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times, will hold an asset auction Oct. 7, with the sale possibly approved Oct. 8.

The publisher filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, listing $479 million in assets and $801 million in debt. Sun-Times' bankruptcy followed that of Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, as plunging advertising sales hindered its ability to make debt payments.

Tyree's group has offered $5 million in cash and would assume about $21.5 million of Sun-Times debt, Sun-Times lawyer David Agay said today. Tyree, chief executive officer of Mesirow Financial Inc, told Bloomberg Television Sept. 11 that his group's offer might save 1,200 or more "nicely paying jobs."