VOA慢速英语 2008 1212a
时间：2018-12-01 作者：英语课 分类：VOA慢速英语2008年（十二）月
One of America's largest media companies has sought protection from its creditors 1 in bankruptcy 2 court. The Tribune Company owns the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and other newspapers. It also owns twenty-three television stations and the Chicago Cubs 3 baseball team.
The Tribune Tower in Chicago, Illinois
Sam Zell, one of the nation's biggest property owners, took control a year ago. He led a stock buyout for eight billion dollars. He borrowed almost all of it.
Many buyouts in recent years were heavily financed with debt. But Tribune was struggling with thirteen billion dollars of debt in a recession. It lost more than one hundred twenty million dollars between July and September.
Tribune sought protection Monday under Chapter Eleven of the bankruptcy laws. Chapter Eleven lets a business continue to operate while it seeks to restructure its debt.
Sam Zell blamed what he called a "perfect storm" of economic conditions including a credit crisis. But critics say he simply borrowed too much.
Tribune is the country's first major newspaper group to declare bankruptcy since the rise of the Internet in the middle of the nineteen nineties. Profits have been shrinking as newspapers lose readers and advertisers to competition from new media. The Christian 4 Science Monitor, for example, plans to publish only online by April.
Newspapers have, in fact, been losing readers since the eighties. But things are a lot worse now. Circulation in the six months ending in September was down almost five percent from the year before. Some papers fell more than ten percent. The two largest newspapers, however, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal, reported little change.
The New York Times is third; its was down about four percent. But Executive Editor Bill Keller says the Times is still profitable and had a billion page views on its Web site in October.
"Good journalism 5 does not come cheap," he says. "And, therefore, you're not going to find a lot of blogs or nonprofit Web sites that are going to build a Baghdad bureau."
He spoke 6 recently on National Public Radio. NPR says it just had a year of near-record audience levels on the radio and online, as other journalism investments decreased. But over the next year, the nonprofit network predicts a big deficit 7 because of less giving by companies in the downturn. So this week it cut seven percent of its jobs and canceled two programs.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.
- They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
- His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。
- a lioness guarding her cubs 守护幼崽的母狮
- Lion cubs depend on their mother to feed them. 狮子的幼仔依靠母狮喂养。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
- His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。
- He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
- He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。