According to Wall Street Journal reports Sunday, massive debts may force the newspaper publisher and broadcaster, Tribune Co., to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as this week. WSJ said Tribune has been on wobbly footing since last December, when real-estate magnate Sam Zell led a debt-backed deal to take the company private.

Last month, Tribune reported a third-quarter loss of $121.6 million. Advertising plunged 19% at its newspapers, which include the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and the Baltimore Sun.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the paper said Tribune - the privately held publisher of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times - has recently hired one of its longtime law firms, Lazard and Sidley Austin, as its financial adviser and a legal counsel.

Sources say that Tribune – which owes a $512 million debt payment in June - may not have enough cash flow to cover the nearly $1 billion in interest payments due this year. As such, the company’s most pressing concern is that its likely violation of debt terms could limit borrowings at the end of the year to nine times its adjusted profits.

To pay down its debt, Tribune has declared itself willing to sell many of its assets. The company earlier this year agreed to sell a 97% stake in Long Island, N.Y., newspaper Newsday to Cablevision Systems for $650 million.

Reports also say that that a restructuring outside of bankruptcy court remains an option for Tribune. Executives have indicated that its talks with lenders are amicable, and it remains possible the two sides can agree to rework the company’s borrowings on their own.