The 129-year-old publisher of Fredericksburg, Va.’s Free Lance-Star newspaper filed for bankruptcy, saying that creditor Sandton Capital Partners LP pressed the company to enter court protection to sell its assets, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Free Lance-Star Publishing Co., which also owns radio stations and websites, listed assets and debt of more than $50 million each in chapter 11 documents filed yesterday. Free Lance-Star, owned by the Rowe family, was undone by a loan it took out from BB&T Corp. to build a printing plant in 2007. Sandton, a New York-based investment firm, bought the loan in June after Free Lance-Star violated covenants, then urged the publisher to file in chapter 11 and sell its assets, according to a court filing.
