Alan Brill Could Have Buyer By Next Month

By: Lucia Moses Alan Brill, owner of the bankrupt Brill Media Co. LLC, said a court could choose a buyer for his company as early as next month.

While Brill -- who is not related to Steven Brill of the late Brill's Content -- hopes to buy the Evansville, Ind.-based company's radio stations and newspapers to save them from a court-ordered sale to pay off $147.6 million in debt, he said his first priority is to retain the newspaper group.

"The question is, do I do that with some of the radio, or all of the radio, or none of the radio," he said.

A bankruptcy plan filed in federal court last week calls for the sale of Brill Media's 13 radio stations and 26 newspapers, made up of The Morning Sun in Mount Pleasant, Mich. (11,598 weekday circulation) and 25 Michigan weeklies (mostly shoppers). Potential buyers' initial expressions of interest were due June 19, but Brill said the process is taking longer than expected.

Brill Media issued public high-yield bonds in 1997 to fund acquisitions and pay back debt. The ad recession -- plus the high prices asked for newspaper and radio properties -- squelched its ability to grow as planned.

Creditors filed an involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in January after Brill Media failed to make a $6.3-million interest payment on its debt. In February, Brill Media got the bankruptcy changed to a Chapter 11 filing, which allows it to operate while it works out a plan to pay creditors.

Brill said he wishes he had moved sooner to sell assets to repay the debt. "The longer I waited to sell it, the more opportunity there was for people to get in the way," he said, referring to creditors.

Brill said the company had about $50 million in revenue last year and remains profitable, but wouldn't say by how much. He hopes to hold on to the assets, either alone or in partnership with others, possibly using leverage from his other media company, Brill Media Co. Inc.