Now broke, willing to go further into debt: Times Co. to Borrow Against Building
The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze as the company grapples with tighter credit and shrinking profits.
Junk, yes,
Standard & Poor’s recently lowered its credit rating on the Times Company below investment grade, and Moody’s Investors Service has said it was considering a similar move. Times Company stock, which has lost more than half its value this year, closed on Friday at $7.64, down 30 cents.
Well on its way to becoming a penny stock, NYT will probably come begging for a government bailout when they can’t pay out the increased debt.
But hey, they have their fun: Just today their editorial calls the POTUS the “deluder in chief”, not that the NYT has indulged in delusion. You go right ahead and google that one, since I’m not bothering to link to birdcage material.
The Times is not the only media company in trouble: also at Memeorandum, Tribune Co. Could Be Flirting With Bankruptcy That’s the Tribune Company, the newspaper chain that owns The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times. Babalu also reports that the Miami Herald is also for sale.
They are hanging low and are ripe for picking:
Despite their serious and persistent business problems, however, newspapers still have considerable clout, especially in local and state politics. Imagine replacing liberal editors at your local rag with conservative ones. Wouldn’t it be nice if for once your local paper cast a critical eye on local recycling programs and what your kids are being taught in school?
For wealthy conservative activist/philanthropists, there may be no more cost-effective way to gain political influence than by buying up local newspapers at distressed prices. Think of the opportunity to modernize these dinosaurs and snatch up mainstream media bargains in important swing states like Colorado and Florida.
With the right business model, an integration of print, cable and internet will be profitable; the opportunity is here. Now is the time to do it.
UPDATE
Your daily digest of newspaper extinction news
UPDATE, Tuesday 9 December
Twilight of the newspapers.
