Philadelphia, another multi-newspaper town, may be in danger of losing the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. Both are owned by Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, which filed for bankruptcy protection “in a bid to restructure its $390 million in debt load.”

The company, bought by a group of Philadelphia-area investors for $562 million in 2006, said the voluntary Chapter 11 filing would not interrupt its daily operations.

“This restructuring is focused solely on our debt, not our operations,” chief executive officer Brian P. Tierney, who led the group that provided about $150 million of the purchase price three years ago, said in a news release.

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The Philadelphia Newspapers filing follows last month’s bankruptcy filing by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The Journal Register Co., based in Yardley and the publisher of a number of local daily and weekly newspapers, filed for bankruptcy Saturday. Just last week, the publicly traded New York Times Co. suspended its dividend to cope with the economic downturn.

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Additionally, Journal Register Company, which publishes of The New Haven (Conn.) Register and other newspapers, also filed for Chapter 11 protection over the weekend.

It reported $596 million in assets as of Nov. 30 and $692 million in debt, including unpaid interest. Revenue has fallen more than 20 percent since 2006, the company said in the filing.

The Journal Register owns 20 daily and 159 other newspapers, serving parts of Philadelphia, Michigan, Connecticut, the Cleveland area and New York. It has about 3,500 employees.

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