Tribune Co. files for bankruptcy relief

Capitulating to a 24 percent year-to-third-quarter revenue decline and a debt load recently reported at $11.8 billion, Tribune Co. — owner of The Baltimore Sun, seven other major dailies and 23 broadcasting stations — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief in Wilmington, Del., on Monday.

The move — a voluntary reorganization under U.S. bankruptcy law that retains the present management — will allow the employee-owned media conglomerate to request relief from debt service while it continues operations in hopes the economy, and its ad revenues, will turn around.