The financial situation continues to deteriorate at the Boston Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Romenesko has the roundup: “The New York Times Co. posted a $648 million loss for the fourth quarter as it absorbed an $814.4 million charge to write down the value of its struggling New England properties, the Boston Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.”
It looks like the Times Co. now agrees with retired General Electric chief executive Jack Welch, who’d like to buy the Globe and who recently valued the paper at between $500 million and $600 million — half what the Times Co. paid for it, and in 1993 dollars at that.
Question: Do the Sulzbergers believe the newspaper market is going to bounce back? Or is it look out below? The answer to that question will determine whether and when the Globe gets sold.
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Hey Dan,Why aren’t you writing about the Globe being bamboozled again into making things up… this time by Theo Epstein’s dad. The excuse of Gordon Edes for printing that Theo and his bride got married at Nathan’s hot dog stand is that he thought Theo’s dad was being serious. Hmmm. Isn’t a basic principle of journalism to have multiple sources? Not only is the value of the Globe dropping, but its credibility continues to tumble.Coney Island wedding… in the middle of winter… with no one spotting them… Right! Let’s print it.
No, they DON’T think print is going to bounce back.They are probably right.Go blog, young man, go blog!
Unfortunately, the “remedies” for the sinking Globe (which, if I recall, is still quite profitable, is it not?) will only further hurt the paper’s bottom line, as quality deteriorates from a leaner newsroom.A vicious cycle, only halted by taking the damn newspapers out of the public market and stop worrying about shareholders with short attention spans.