Light posting

I'm getting over a flu bug that hit me over the weekend so this will be a slow day. Not much business news expected because of the holiday (markets are closed). A couple of stories to keep an eye on: NBC and Conan O'Brien coming to terms on an exit deal (lawyers were still wrapping up details over the weekend), and a pending bankruptcy filing by the holding company of MediaNews Group, publisher of the Daily News, Daily Breeze and dozens of other papers in the Dean Singleton empire. The filing will be a "prepackaged" bankruptcy, which is when companies get the support of creditors in advance so that a judge can quickly approve the reorganization. From the WSJ:

Mr. Singleton, like many corporate executives, was sensitive to any negative fallout from a bankruptcy filing, according to people close to him. "It was personally difficult for me," Mr. Singleton said in an interview. "I'm a ranch kid from West Texas, and we don't like the 'B word.'" He said the company tried for months to rework its debt load outside of bankruptcy court. Mr. Singleton also said cleaning up the company's debt load allows him to help lead newspaper-industry consolidation, which some people in the industry say would help publishers stay afloat by creating stronger, more efficiently run groups of papers. Others are less sanguine about the benefits of consolidation.