Publishers Clearing House, known for big checks, goes bankrupt

(Bloomberg) Publishers Clearing House LLC, known for handing over excessive checks at the door of his surprised participants, has submitted bankruptcy. The 72-year-old company owes as much as $ 100 million to over 100,000 creditors, it rang in a chapter 11 in Manhattan. PCH has listed between $ 1 million and $ 10 million to assets on its bankruptcy request. PCH has become prominent through advertising that promotes its whip tasks that flooded in the late 1980s and 1990s. According to court documents, the company said it had granted more than $ 500 million to prizes over the decades and still offered through social media and mobile apps. According to court documents, the company revenue shrank when online consumers demanded faster deliveries and free delivery, which PCH could not comply with. Revenue dropped from nearly $ 879 million in 2018 to $ 181 million last year, according to court documents. The company plans to partly revive its fate by delivering advertisements to clients who visit its website, who attracted 36 million visitors last year, the company said in a court conservation. While bankrupt, the company will leave its magazine subscription and direct postal sales that the founders started in 1953 and focus on becoming ‘Pure Digital Advertising’, CEO Andy Goldberg said in a statement. “It’s important that our world -renowned whip tasks be a cornerstone of our experiences,” Goldberg said. The company said in court documents that it would use its time in Chapter 11 to restructure its operations and increase the online presence of PCH. It is said that it will also consider selling its assets. PCH expanded to the web in the late 1990s by obtaining various digital firms while retaining its job order marketing business. The company’s e-commerce marketing programs have become an important source of revenue, along with advertisements, said William Henrich, co-chief restructuring officer of PCH, in a court conservation. As PCH revenue fell, the company suffered losses in 2022, Henrich said. Meanwhile, television advertising has become more expensive and less effective in the midst of the rise of streaming, “it makes it more difficult to achieve the mass audiences of earlier decades,” Henrich said. The owners of the company contain various trusts containing founders, Harold and Luesther Mertz, and their daughter, Joyce Mertz-Gilmore, according to the court records. The case is Publisher Clearing House LLC, Number 25-10694, in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. (Updates with the company statement in the fourth paragraph.) More stories like these are available on Bloomberg.com © 2025 Bloomberg LP first published: 10 Apr 2025, 06:06 AM IST