• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, September 12, 2013

KSL Media -- the independent media agency with offices in New York and California -- is going out of business, the firm confirmed in a bankruptcy filing in California on Sept. 11.

The agency said in its Chapter 11 filing that it had in excess of $50 million in debt and over 200 creditors.

The shop added that it had determined that “restructuring efforts would not be successful,” and had thus decided to “wind down” operations under the protection of Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy code.

The agency was founded in 1981 by Kal Leibowitz and for a time was considered one of the larger independent media agencies, although billings never approached $1 billion. Clients included PetSmart, Omega and Swatch, according to the agency’s Web site, which was still up as of Thursday.

A sign of trouble came in August, when MediaBistro reported that two of KSL’s top executives -- Hank Cohen, CEO and David Sklaver, president -- were leaving the firm.

The New York office phone number was “no longer in service” as of Thursday morning. A call to Sklaver wasn’t immediately returned. 


The tagline on KSL's homepage remains hopeful, even as it tells a bankruptcy court it is winding down.