Circulation and advertising revenues at the New England Media Group — which runs The Boston Globe — took a dive last quarter, just as The New York Times gets ready to announce a sale of the broadsheet any day now.Um, I'm pretty sure circulation revenue dropped because home delivery prices were increased, but maybe it's just me...
New England Media’s overall revenue fell 7.4 percent last quarter compared to the second quarter of 2012, the Times announced during a quarterly conference call earlier today.
Advertising fell 9.5 percent last quarter. Circulation revenue dropped 2.3 percent, even though the Globe hiked up home delivery prices in May, Times execs reported. Other revenues dropped 14 percent.
This part's interesting:
Times Chief Financial Officer James Fallo told analysts it’s “unlikely” that pension obligations will be included in the sale of New England Media, which also includes the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and Boston.com.Does this mean the NYT assumes the pension obligations, or are they gone completely (i.e. - no pension for you!)? It could also mean that the bids are structured in a way not to assume those obligations (asset purchase only).
...This tends to support what I said in previous Globe bashing posts - these bids look like a play only on the land, building & equipment at 135 Morrissey Boulevard (asset purchase), since there's no reason to offer a premium on a money losing operation. At least the Times will have a nice tax writeoff on the $1 billion loss, so they have that going for them...
The long-awaited Globe sale could come any day now with several bidders reportedly in the mix, including a team consisting of former Globe execs Steve and Ben Taylor and former Time CEO Jack Griffin; Red Sox owner John Henry; and the Revolution Capital Group, which owns the Tampa Tribune.
Bid prices, however, have reportedly ranged between $65 million and $80 million — far less than the $120 million analysts had once projected and a shell of the $1.1 billion the Times paid for the Globe in 1993.
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Showing himself late to the analytical party on this deal, Ryan Johnston speculated on WBZ-FM that Henry will build a new ballpark on the Morrissey Blvd. site, since it occupies more acreage than Fenway Park and he can move the newspaper/website elsewhere.
Not sure if he'll do that, though I'll say it's a better idea than having El Globo.
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