6) The New York Times (NYT) has to repay $400 million in debt in the first half of 2009. It does not have the money. It plans to mortgage its headquarters, but it is uncertain what that will bring in an uncertain real estate market. The firm’s Boston Globe and regional newspaper operations lose money, so they will be hard to sell. NYT is controlled by the Sulzberger family which has super-majority voting shares. That won’t matter much when the company runs out of money. Another big media operation, perhaps News Corp (NWS) which owns The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post, will come in and auction off what it can and keep the flagship New York Times newspaper and NYTimes.com website.
Will America's "newspaper of record" be a historical record?
I guess there is a poetic justice in the possibility that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (NWS) would auction the choicer cuts off of the Gray Lady's carcass. Presumably this would include things more valuable than the human "assets"--those "unbiased" journalists-- like say, good-as-new toilet fixtures and chandeliers. Even Watchtower Inc. has an intrinsic value: once you wash the Brooklyn buildings free of the human detritus, the view over the East River isn't bad at all...and like those old Awake! magazines, the leftover copies of the NYT could be put to a good use for a change, like wrapping up dead fish or lining bird cages...but I digress.
Still, as the unofficial propaganda arm of the Democrat Party (and now by default a state media source...oh the humanatee!), what are the chances that they would be able avert catastrophe by lining up to the bailout feeding trough and getting paid? I'd suppose pretty good. These journalists are just a tad bit more reputable than the politicians they are in bed with and can definitely wheel and deal. But if not..well...maybe these unemployed liberal journalists can acquire gainful employment in a more reputable field such used car sales or starting their own fundamentalist cults.
BTS