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Less than two years after last being on the auction block, control of the Philadelphia Media Network, the parent company of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com, is being donated to a newly created philanthropic foundation, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The nonprofit organization, called the Institution for Journalism in New Media, will start with a $20 million endowment funded by the outlets’ current owner H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest. The hope is that the foundation will help steady the ownership of the papers, which have changed hands several times in the past decade, endured a bankruptcy and the death of one owner in a plane crash. The structure also is designed to help stabilize a news operation that has diminished to 1,300 staffers among the three news organizations from 1,800 in 2012, amid a steep drop in advertising revenue. In November, the three news outlets cut a combined 46 newsroom jobs, leaving them with approximately 250 reporters. All of them will soon be moved into a single newsroom.

The judge in Sabine Oil & Gas Corporation's chapter 11 case has been asked to review what Wells Fargo, the first lien agent, is characterizing as excessive requested professionals fees totaling approximately $8.3 million incurred as part of what it describes as the "scorched earth litigation tactics" of the five professional firms involved in the lawsuit, Texas Lawyer reported today. Wells Fargo recently filed in its role as the first lien agent in Sabine Oil's case in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York its limited objection with bankruptcy judge Shelley Chapman, related to fees incurred by committee projections in connection with the committee's investigation in the bankruptcy case. Wells Fargo stated that the committee's authority to investigate and challenge the liens and claims of the pre-petition secured parties at the expense of the debtors' estates is not unlimited. According to Wells Fargo, in accordance with standard practice in complex chapter 11 cases, the debtors and the committee agreed in a heavily negotiated final cash collateral order to a cap on the fees and expenses that can be incurred by the committee in connection with its investigation.

Bankrupt U.S. coal miner Arch Coal has broad support from senior lenders for a plan to cut $4.5 billion of debt, lawyers said in court yesterday, and urged any unhappy creditors to join negotiations, Reuters reported. Arch Coal, the second-largest U.S. coal miner, filed for bankruptcy on Monday, following peers Walter Energy, Alpha Natural Resources and Patriot Coal into chapter 11 protection in the midst of a prolonged slump in the coal sector. The Missouri-based miner, suffering from falling coal demand and stricter regulation, said in court that it now has the support of 66.3 percent of lenders for a proposal to cut debt and continue mining operations that span from Maryland to Wyoming.

Crude-oil prices plunged more than 5 percent on Monday to trade near $30 a barrel, making the specter of bankruptcy ever more likely for a significant chunk of the U.S. oil industry, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Three major investment banks — Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. — now expect the price of oil to crash through the $30 threshold and into $20 territory in short order as a result of China’s slowdown, the U.S. dollar’s appreciation and the fact that drillers from Houston to Riyadh won’t quit pumping despite the oil glut. As many as a third of American oil-and-gas producers could tip toward bankruptcy and restructuring by mid-2017, according to Wolfe Research. Survival, for some, would be possible if oil rebounded to at least $50, according to analysts. The benchmark price of U.S. crude settled at $31.41 a barrel, setting a 12-year low. More than 30 small companies that collectively owe in excess of $13 billion have already filed for bankruptcy protection so far during this downturn, according to law firm Haynes & Boone. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

For further analysis of oil and gas bankruptcies, be sure to pick up a copy of ABI’s When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy. 

The New York City Opera is betting that thrift-shop sales will soar by more than 40 percent, to $1.2 million a year, as shoppers and donors scared away by the institution’s 2013 bankruptcy filing come back, Crain’s New York Business. It may work out that way, but at least one skeptic has emerged: the New York Attorney General’s Office. In a recent court filing raising questions about the company’s comeback plans, the office said the thrift-shop revenue may have been “too generously estimated.” Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane will decide how realistic he thinks the opera company’s financial plans are at a hearing Tuesday. If Judge Lane approves the plan, then City Opera would emerge from the financial wilderness just a week before the curtain is to rise January 20 on its first production in nearly three years — Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Women's retailer Joyce Leslie Inc. has filed for bankruptcy with plans to liquidate if it can't find a buyer after grappling with declining sales in recent years, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The New Jersey-based retailer, which filed for chapter 11 protection on Saturday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., said that changing consumer spending patterns, in addition to its "inability to compete in today's technology-driven environment due to the lack of a sophisticated e-commerce platform" led to its downfall. Joyce Leslie hired SB Capital Group LLC, Tiger Capital Group LLC and 360 Merchant Solutions LLC to assist in liquidating its stores, with store-closing sales slated to begin in February if it can't find a buyer through a bankruptcy auction.

Sherwin Alumina Co., a U.S. unit of commodities company Glencore PLC, said that it has filed for chapter 11 protection in light of challenging market conditions, MarketWatch.com reported today. A spokesman for Glencore, which owns the entire business, said the commodities producer and trader is "supportive of the restructuring process undertaken by Sherwin and is hopeful of an outcome that will allow for the continued operation of the Sherwin facility." Sherwin said that it will continue to operate while in bankruptcy and that Corpus Christi Alumina, another unit of Glencore, has offered to purchase almost all of Sherwin's assets for an undisclosed sum.

Arch Coal Inc., the second-largest coal miner in the U.S., and its domestic subsidiaries filed for chapter 11 protection to facilitate a restructuring with a group of lenders that hold more than 50 percent of its debt, Reuters reported today. Arch Coal said that it reached an agreement with its lenders that will eliminate more than $4.5 billion in debt from the company's balance sheet. Arch Coal is the fourth coal miner, after Walter Energy Inc., Alpha Natural Resources Inc. and Patriot Coal, to file for bankruptcy. The Missouri-based company was widely expected to go bankrupt after delaying a $90 million interest payment due in December last year.