In its bankruptcy petition filed with the Southern District of New York U.S. Bankruptcy Court, U.S. Media Holdings listed liabilities of $25.04 million and assets of $24.73 million. U.S. Media, parent company of Stewart, Tabori & Chang, Golden Turtle Press and Smithmark, filed for Chapter 11 on April 13 (News, Apr. 17).
The company's largest creditors are printers. Its single largest creditor is Toppan Printing Co., which is owed $791,031, while Palace Press is owed $672,771. Other printers that are owed significant sums include Pearl East Printing ($265,784), R.R. Donnelley ($240,244) and Archtype Press ($224,398).
Book packager Joost Elffers is owed $457,615 pursuant to a distribution agreement, while Welcome Enterprises, owned by former STC president Lena Tabori, is owed $140,255. The financial drain that Smithmark was putting on U.S. Media is evident in the $306,022 it owes to Penguin Putnam and the $201,061 it owes Simon & Schuster for remainders it bought from those publishers.
According to sources and court documents, it is likely that U.S. Media will be sold piecemeal. STC and Golden Turtle are expected to attract a number of interested buyers, while Smithmark will be much more difficult to sell. Smithmark has no new titles planned beyond its spring list, but U.S. Media is waiting for court approval to publish about 10 STC titles in the fall as well as the Golden Turtle calendar line.
