Current Newspapers Inc., a 50-year-old publisher of weeklies serving northwest Washington, D.C., filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday, just months after Gannett Co. sued it over unpaid printing bills, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Current Newspapers owes almost $1.3 million to unsecured creditors, including about $180,000 to Gannett, and has assets of less than $50,000, according to the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Washington, D.C. In the bankruptcy filing, Current cited “an interruption in cash flow resulting from outside printing costs” as a reason for seeking to reorganize in bankruptcy court. Gannett sued Current last September in Superior Court of the District of Columbia, and the court record shows Current Newspapers Chairman Davis Kennedy pleading for more time to pay off the debt and warning that it could end up in bankruptcy.
