UPDATE 1-Postmedia considers asset sales, restructuring as losses widen

(Adds details from earnings statement, background)
TORONTO, April 7 (Reuters) - Postmedia Network Canada Corp
PNCa.TO , the country's biggest newspaper publisher, said on
Thursday it had initiated a review to consider asset sales and
debt and equity restructuring as its losses widened.
The publisher said it lost C$225.1 million ($170.96 million)
in the three months to the end of February, which included a
C$187 million impairment charge, in what Chief Executive Officer
Paul Godfrey called "an unrelentingly challenging environment."
That compared to a loss of C$58.2 million a year earlier.
Postmedia said it had formed a special committee to consider
non-core asset sales, cost reductions, initiatives to boost
sales, and refinancing or repayment of debt and the issuance of
new debt or equity.
The company also said that Ted Lodge, a partner at its
largest shareholder, hedge fund manager GoldenTree Asset
Management LP, had resigned from its board to "focus on
GoldenTree's investment in Postmedia."
GoldenTree is looking to sell its stake in the company, the
Wall Street Journal reported in March, citing unnamed sources.
Postmedia's stable of newspapers includes the National Post,
Montreal Gazette, Calgary Herald, Ottawa Citizen and Sun tabloid
in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and Winnipeg.
The company said its revenue, excluding the contribution of
the Sun newspaper chain acquired in April last year, fell 13.1
percent to C$126.4 million. Including the Sun titles, revenue
was C$209.1 million.
Postmedia blamed the decline on a further deterioration in
print advertising revenue, while circulation and digital revenue
also fell.
The company said in January it planned to cut C$80 million
in operating costs by the end of fiscal 2017, up from a C$50
million target in July last year.
($1 = 1.3167 Canadian dollars)