Newspapers
On the block: NYT Co. shops Globe
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Jun 11, 2009 - 1:18:51 AM

The fight between the New York Times Co. and the Boston Globe employees is getting as ugly as Yankees versus Red Sox.

In the latest development, the Times Co. has reportedly retained investment banking firm Goldman Sachs to field bids for the Globe, which is on pace to lose $85 million this year.

Whether the Times Co. is serious about selling, just trying to put a monetary value on the paper, or is simply posturing for the Boston Newspaper Guild is unclear. What is clear is that the two sides are becoming increasingly distant in the ongoing labor dispute between the BNG, the paper’s largest union, and Times Co. management.

A day after more than 100 guild members sent a letter to New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger asking him to step in to the dispute, which ripped open after the guild voted down a new contract Monday and management announced a 23 percent pay cut, the publisher gave an answer they probably did not want to hear.

“We are now left with no alternative other than to proceed with the wage reduction,” Sulzberger said in an email made public yesterday. “Without that, the Globe will be unable to effectuate the savings already ratified by its other unions, in which case it simply cannot survive. We cannot allow that to happen, so we, regrettably, will implement the wage reduction.”

The publisher did not comment on reports that the NYT Co. is putting the Globe on the block, two months after it first threatened to shut down the paper if the unions did not agree to $20 million in cuts. Six other Globe guilds did ratify new contracts that will save $10 million.

The Boston Globe reports that the Times Co. put out the word that it would consider bids for the paper following Monday’s guild vote, no matter the outcome. But the company has not indicated whether it’s serious about a sale.

Some think the move is simply a play to break the union, which wants to restart negotiations. Others think the NYT Co. just wants to gauge the Globe’s market value.

One thing seems for sure, there will be a very select group of bidders. The newspaper industry has had a rough time of late with plunging circulation and advertising, and buyers never came forward for two other large dailies that were shut down earlier this year, the Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Of course, the Globe is a more venerable title and thus could draw more interest, especially with the cost-cutting changes just made by the Times Co. If the union renegotiations were a ploy to make the paper more attractive to buyers, it could work.

The Times reportedly will entertain bids through the end of the summer at least before making any decisions.



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