The owner of 23 daily newspapers and a host of other publications in nine states -- including several community papers published in the Triangle -- has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Heartland Publications filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code today after reaching a deal with its largest lender to cut the company's debt load by more than half, the Associated Press reported. Heartland publishes the Fuquay-Varina Independent, Holly Springs Sun, Cleveland Post, The Apex Herald and Garner News.

The company said its newspapers — in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia — would continue operating as usual. The company said that by reaching an agreement before filing it hoped to emerge from bankruptcy protection by early spring.

The privately held company, based in Clinton, Conn., is one of at least a dozen newspaper publishers forced into bankruptcy protection by the recession, which depressed advertising sales in an industry that was already seeing readers and advertisers migrate to the Web.