Baltimore Jewish Times to suspend payments on a loan it received from the city

Baltimore officials approved a deal allowing the city's Jewish newspaper to suspend payments on a loan it received from the city.

In light of financial troubles at the Baltimore Jewish Times, the Baltimore Board of Estimates voted unanimously Wednesday to permit the publication to delay principal payments on a $150,000 relocation loan from the Baltimore Development Corp. for the next two years.

The paper will continue weekly interest payments and already has paid back $40,000 of the principal on the 2002 loan.

Publisher Andrew Buerger said the suspension of payments would mean the weekly paper would not have to lay off another member of the 45-person staff after downsizing by four staff positions in the past year. The paper has an editorial staff of 10.

Buerger said the agreement would not affect the paper's coverage of the city.

"I don't think our editorial department is even aware" of it, he told the Sun, adding that "we are not getting out of the loan."

The loan, at a 3 percent interest rate, was offered to the paper as an incentive to move into the city from the suburb of Owings Mills. Board of Estimates chief financial officer Jeff Pillas said the agreement on the loan was made because the board "didn't want them to close up."

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/10/29/1008824/baltimore-jewish-times-gets-two-year-break-on-loan-payments