"Times Co. posts $74.5m loss; As it posts its first-quarter results, Times Co. says concessions from Globe unions are key" by Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | April 22, 2009
Executives at The New York Times Co., which posted a first-quarter net loss of $74.5 million yesterday, said concessions from The Boston Globe's unions were key to reducing expenses, as the company's advertising revenue plunged 27 percent.
"Globe management is engaged in a wide-ranging effort to restructure its cost base," Times Co. chief executive Janet L. Robinson told stock analysts, citing the closing of a printing plant in Billerica and talks aimed at gaining $20 million in savings from the unions. She said advertisers have pulled back in the recession, and the company plans to pare $330 million in costs overall in 2009.
Times Co. officials also said there's been strong interest in buying the company's 17.7 percent stake in New England Sports Ventures, which owns the Boston Red Sox. The Times Co. put its share for sale in December. "We are pleased by the response we have seen from prospective buyers," Robinson said. She didn't identify the prospects.
Huh.
"NASCAR coverage was also expanded on the cable channel New England Sports Network, which is owned by New England Sports Ventures, the parent company of the Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group. The New York Times Co., which owns The Boston Globe, holds a 17 percent stake in New England Sports Ventures."
Yeah, TELL ME AGAIN about GLOBAL WARMING and the ENVIRONMENT!!
But they are giving you the objective, unvarnished, and full truth in their pages, yup!
Executives didn't address whether the Times Co. might close the Globe, which it has threatened to do if it can't achieve substantial cost savings. They also wouldn't respond to questions about whether the Times Co. might sell the Globe, which it purchased for $1.1 billion in 1993. But Robinson and others made it clear they were taking a hard look at the performance of all of the company's properties. "As always, we continue to evaluate our assets to see if they are a strategic fit," said James M. Follo, Times Co. senior vice president and chief financial officer....
Company officials, both in the quarterly report and a conference call with analysts yesterday, singled out "significant losses at the New England Media Group" as a major factor in the Times Co.'s dismal performance. The company doesn't break out earnings or losses for the group, which includes the Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
It ain't cause of me. I been buying them lately; however, that will be stopping real soon, right around May 4:
"The Boston Globe said it will raise the newsstand price of the newspaper to $1 from 75 cents in the city zone, and to $1.50 from $1 outside Greater Boston, effective May 4. The newsstand price of the Sunday Globe will rise to $3.50 within Greater Boston and $4 outside the region from $2.50"
Union leaders said Times Co. managers were refusing to take responsibility for the company's financial downturn. "Of course they blame us," said Mary White, president of Teamsters Local 1, which represents 145 full-time and 100 part-time workers in the Globe's mailroom. "They're not going to take any of the blame themselves."
Times Co. spokeswoman Catherine Mathis declined to comment. Yesterday's bleak report came as Times Co. officials resumed negotiations with labor unions at the Globe. The company earlier this month threatened to shut down the newspaper if it could not reach its $20 million savings target, telling labor leaders that the Globe lost $50 million last year and is projected to lose $85 million this year.
While every segment of the company was battered by the steep advertising decline, the New England group, dominated by the Globe, turned in the weakest performance. Ad revenue tumbled 31.6 percent for the New England group.
Then the PUBLISHER is also a LIAR!!!!!!
"Yesterday, Globe publisher P. Steven Ainsley and chief advertising officer Samuel P. Martin sent a letter to about 5,000 advertisers to reassure them about the Globe.... "We are very committed to continuing as your marketing partner," Ainsley and Martin said in the letter. Powers said the news of the Globe's threatened shutdown has not affected advertising"
Advertising revenue dropped 27.3 percent at the New York Times Media Group, which includes The New York Times newspaper and the International Herald Tribune. It fell 29.3 percent at the Regional Media Group, which includes smaller newspapers mostly in the Southeast....
Internet revenue, from the company's newspaper websites and its About.com unit, fell 6 percent to $67.6 million, as the slowdown in classified advertising sales continued to spread to online operations. Those operations now account for 12.8 percent of Times Co. revenue, and Robinson said company leaders are exploring online payment models that would supplement advertising on its free websites.
Once they start charging for the web, I won't go there at all. I already paid for the paper; I'm not paying twice.
"It's really not a pretty picture for anybody in the newspaper business," said Lauren Rich Fine, a professor at Kent State University and research director at ContentNext, a digital media company. "Papers can't cut costs fast enough. The problem becomes how do you find a way to produce a quality product but do it with fewer people."
--more --"Answer: YOU CAN'T!
Of course, I've TRIED to HELP THEM (hint, hint, hint):
"The media which has printed these lies and presented the horrors of the day according to the angle desired by those who operate it have become their own worst enemy. They are daily providing the evidence that they lie. Truth tellers on the internet are turning over every rock they tried to bury the truth beneath."
Of course, if they ever told the truth now, the people would not only be appalled at when has been done and the lies that were told doing it; they would understand the MSM's role in FACILITATING ABSOLUTE, AGENDA-PUSHING PROPAGANDA and OUTRIGHT RACIST RUBBISH!!!
"Falling ad revenue and heavy debt sink local buyers' efforts" by Keith O'Brien, Globe Staff | April 22, 2009
.... Private owners, particularly those like Tierney with local roots, were once welcomed as saviors in many newsrooms. Independent ownership, the theory went, would not be bound by Wall Street's appetite for profits and, therefore, could save newspapers from devastating cuts. It's a theory that some Bostonians have resurrected today, given The New York Times Co. threat to shutter The Boston Globe if unions don't agree to $20 million in concessions. Some believe the cuts may be a prelude to a sale and are hoping a local buyer steps up. But recent buyers of newspapers have struggled to stay in business, much less stay in the black....
I've always said, the lies didn't help.
In written testimony filed for yesterday's congressional hearing to discuss the state of US media outlets, Tierney said newspapers need "limited antitrust relief" in order to "discuss and experiment with new and more sustainable business models and strategies." The problem is not only a rapid decline in ad revenue - The New York Times, for example, yesterday reported a 27 percent drop in the first quarter of this year alone - but the crushing debts that many owners incurred to purchase the newspapers in the first place.
Then go tell it to the bank that got billions in bailout dough.
Quit whining to me, newspaper.
Without those debts, some struggling newspapers would be profitable, said Tom Fiedler, dean of Boston University's College of Communication. One upside of the cratering newspaper economy, he said, is that new buyers may be able to avoid the highly leveraged deals that got other recent owners in trouble, given the low prices that newspapers are commanding these days. The San Diego Union-Tribune, which was acquired last month by a private equity firm in Beverly Hills, Calif., reportedly sold for less than $50 million.
But given the Globe's losses - the paper is projected to lose an estimated $85 million this year - and the general state of the industry, Fiedler said even local owners, coming in with plenty of money and the best intentions, would probably find themselves in trouble after buying the paper.
"If they do it with any kind of debt, which is almost certain, they're going to find themselves operating at a loss," Fiedler said. "The conundrum is the only way to service the debt is to make further cuts. And if you make further cuts, the quality of the product is less attractive to consumers. And then you're in a negative spiral."
Did he ever hit that nail square on!
But not everyone is so pessimistic about the future of newspapers in general and private owners in particular.... Amid all the obvious troubles, there are still a few investors out there, longing to own a daily newspaper....
Really, Globe? Where? You hoping, huh?
--more--"Of course, they won't publicly talk about any of this:
"Globe management rejects union offer to bargain in public" by Robert Gavin, Globe Staff | April 22, 2009
Boston Globe management yesterday rejected a proposal by the newspaper's largest union to publicly negotiate concessions sought to save the money-losing newspaper, according to union and Globe officials. The Boston Newspaper Guild, which represents more than 600 editorial, advertising, and business office workers, called last week for negotiations to be held in public sessions....
Globe spokesman Robert Powers yesterday confirmed that management rejected public negotiations. "We believe that any successful negotiation depends on a high degree of confidentiality where differing opinions and proposals can be freely exchanged," he said.
In a statement, Boston Newspaper Guild president Daniel Totten said: "We're disappointed. The future of The Boston Globe and its mission of journalism and free speech is a matter of vital public interest. The Guild had hoped that these negotiations could be conducted in as transparent a way as possible."
I wish I could agree with him, but.... lies, omissions, obfuscations, agenda-pushing, war-promoting, the list is endless.
Still, Totten made it clear the Guild is willing to work with management after Times Co. executives, during an earnings call with analysts yesterday, singled out union concessions as a key way to preserve the paper. "The Boston Newspaper Guild has indicated to The New York Times Co. and Globe management that we're prepared to offer significant labor cost savings proposals," Totten said....
Translation: the union will back down.
And the Times is playing hardball....
"Times intends to enforce deadline; May 1 date for Globe union cuts firm; executives say they hope to avoid closure" by Keith O'Brien and Robert Gavin, Globe Staff | April 24, 2009
NEW YORK - New York Times Co. chief executive Janet L. Robinson said yesterday that the company intends to enforce the May 1 deadline it has set to receive $20 million in concessions from Boston Globe unions.
"We've talked to them about the May 1 deadline, and I think they know it's the date we need for them to get back to us," Robinson said in an interview with the Globe at the Times Co.'s annual meeting in New York. Times Co. executives told union leaders at the Globe three weeks ago that the paper would be shut down unless the concessions are agreed to. Yesterday, neither Robinson nor Times Co. chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. would address or elaborate on the possibility of shutting the paper down.
Both did, however, make it clear that they hope to avoid that dire outcome. In his prepared speech to the packed 378-seat auditorium at Times Co. headquarters, Sulzberger said that executives "care deeply" about the Globe - a theme that he expanded on in a brief interview with the Globe just before the meeting started. "I do love the Globe," Sulzberger said....
I might have once, but that was long, long ago.
In Boston yesterday, progress was reported in negotiations with the Globe's largest union, the Boston Newspaper Guild, which represents more than 600 editorial, advertising, and business office workers. The two sides recently reached an agreement to allow the union to review the Globe's finances, since the Times Co. does not publicly report earnings for its individual units....
The Times Co.'s annual meeting came just two days after the company released a grim first-quarter earnings report, documenting a net loss of $74.5 million in the first three months of the year. Advertising revenue plummeted 27 percent companywide, the Times Co. reported, mirroring a trend playing out at other newspaper companies. And the New England Media Group, a division that includes the Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, fared even worse. Ad revenue in New England fell more than 31 percent, the company reported.
Think they are lying to get the union to bend over more in the negotiations?
Nah, New York Times would never lie about anything!
But perhaps even more alarming than these numbers is the Times Co. projection that the Globe is on pace to lose $85 million in 2009 - a figure confirmed for the first time yesterday by the Times Co. in a securities filing and also by Globe publisher P. Steven Ainsley, who sat in the front row of the auditorium as Sulzberger and Robinson spoke to shareholders.
Interesting: Boston Globe Executives Got Six-Figure Bonuses
The projected $85 million figure includes costs for employee severance as well as depreciation, an accounting charge that reflects the declining value of assets, said Times Co. spokeswoman Catherine Mathis. Ainsley declined to comment further on the loss, but in two memos e-mailed to employees yesterday, the Globe publisher offered more insight into how badly the Globe is hurting and how he expects the newspaper might overcome those troubles, assuming it avoids a shutdown.
In one of the memos, Ainsley outlined a plan to close the paper's $85 million gap through a combination of cost reductions and new revenues. The memo was a summary of a plan laid out in more detail at a recent meeting of newspaper managers. At that meeting, Globe managers were told that, in addition to $20 million in union concessions, the Globe plans to save $18 million from the shutdown in June of its Billerica printing plant; $8 million from nonunion managers, including a 5 percent pay cut and the elimination of 2009 bonuses; and about $4 million from various operational efficiencies, according to several managers who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly.
The Globe also expects to gain $20 million from consumer price increases for the newspaper, including a soon-to-be-announced increase in home delivery rates; $4 million from a recently formed advertising partnership with Yahoo, the Internet portal; and $4 million in increased digital advertising.
This after they said "Home delivery prices remain unchanged"
New revenues are also anticipated from the forthcoming expansion of Boston.com's Your Town sites, which focus on individual communities, according to the Ainsley memo, and through "launching new digital services and consumer-pay programs that do not eat into advertising revenues."
In a separate communication to employees, Ainsley also said The Boston Globe Foundation, which is a Globe affiliate that donates about $1 million a year to community groups, will immediately suspend all future grants and funding applications.
Yup, NO MORE CHARITY from the HOLIER-than-THOU PAPER!!!!
The foundation, whose assets were combined with those of The New York Times Co. Foundation in 2001, will honor its current commitments, including multiyear scholarships given to students and the Globe Santa program. But "given the current economic and industry conditions," Ainsley wrote, it was no longer possible for the foundation, which is funded by the Times Co., to continue making other donations.
Yesterday the Times Co. also said The New York Times Co. Foundation is suspending grant making and matching gifts from Times and Globe employees, meaning donations made by employees to certain charitable organizations will no longer be matched by the foundation as they once were. Meanwhile, at the shareholder meeting yesterday, Robinson said company executives understand that the industry is changing and they plan to change with it.
Like what, GIVING UP the BONUSES?
"We will reinvent print and online journalism. We will redefine and refine our business model," Robinson told the crowd. "And we will strive to be the undeniable leader of quality news and information, no matter what the method of distribution."
Yeah, well, if you ain't gonna tell the truth, you might as well forget it.
--more--"
Of course, this guy assures us they are not closing.
Maybe some of you workers should start checking the Globe want ads.
NEW YORK - I went to The New York Times Co. annual meeting yesterday to find out if my boss's boss, Arthur Sulzberger, would really shut down The Boston Globe if he couldn't get $20 million in union concessions soon. The short answer: I don't believe so....
I talked briefly with Sulzberger and Times Co. chief executive Janet Robinson in the company's swanky new Manhattan headquarters. They were pleasant, for people threatening to shut my newspaper down.
"I do love the Globe," Sulzberger said. Annual meetings are otherwise dreadful events for the people running public companies. They answer real questions from shareholders, but also must deal with assorted yahoos. They field unflattering job evaluations from strangers in the audience when the stock is down.
You know, the RANK and INSULTING ELITISM isn't helping either, guy!!!!
Sulzberger and Robinson took their share of guff yesterday from stockholders who remember their shares were worth $50 seven years ago, not the $5.13 they commanded yesterday. I can sympathize with Times Co. shareholders, who are upset to see their investments plunge in value. I used to be one of them. I sold my shares a couple of years ago when they were still worth more than $20, in part because I needed the money. But I also couldn't stand the losses, even then, and saw big trouble in the future for the newspaper industry.
And yet here he is still writing for one!
Very poor business performance demands answers at a shareholder meeting. Times Co. executives described all of the forces working against the company, but they left no doubt what ranked as Problem Number One: The plunging business performance of the Globe.
"The Boston Globe has been most dramatically affected by the secular and cyclical forces that are roiling the entire media industry," Sulzberger said. All you need to know: Ad sales at New England Media Group, which is dominated by the Globe, were down more than 31 percent, in comparison to terrible numbers from a year ago. That's not an encouraging statistic to read when someone is pointing a gun at you.
Hey, that's TERRORISM!!
But the few times Sulzberger got off the no-comment script, he sounded like someone trying to save something valued. He spoke admiringly about the Globe as a newspaper....
Sickening.
One stock analyst, Craig Huber of Barclays Capital, issued a report this week suggesting Times Co. shares could fall to $1 each within the next year. That's cheaper than the price of a daily Times.
Not here it's not.
And before you dismiss the stock analyst's view, see: Why I am Buying a Boston Globe Today That guy was correct a lot sooner than he thought!
Btw, I will never buy a NYT ever again, and I never even visit their website anymore.
"In our opinion, newspapers cannot cost cut themselves to prosperity and an online-only newspaper model is not profitable, not even close," Huber wrote. "We do not have a solution on how to solve the difficulties newspapers face."
I don't have a solution, either. Sulzberger spoke encouragingly yesterday about efforts at the Times Co. to boost revenue from online news and promised more on that subject soon. All I can say is good luck. The future is very uncertain for many newspapers, including the Globe. But the next week should be about negotiations and plans, not desperate ultimatums.
--more--"Back to the negotiating table:
"Hundreds rally to back Globe; Friday deadline looms for paper" by Robert Gavin, Globe Staff | April 25, 2009
Several hundred Boston Globe employees, union workers, and readers rallied yesterday at Faneuil Hall to support the struggling newspaper, which its owner is threatening to close if union employees don't agree to deep cost cuts.
"Save the Globe, save the Globe," the crowd chanted. Among the crowd was Barry French, 66, who traveled from Freetown, nearly an hour away. "I'm just an old person in favor of newspapers," French said.
Yeah, they blow their own protest horn while stiffing the antiwar or anti-agenda folk! That's why they are tanking.
The rally was organized by the Globe's largest union, the Boston Newspaper Guild, which represents more than 600 editorial and commercial workers. The Globe's owner, The New York Times Co. has threatened to shut down the paper unless its unions agree to $20 million of concessions by Friday. The paper is projected to lose $85 million this year, according to the Times Co.
Globe employees, labor leaders, political leaders, and other journalists expressed a range of feelings at the rally: pride for the Globe, concern for its future, and outrage at the Times Co.
Brian Mooney, a Globe reporter for 21 years, said many union workers have gone years without pay increases even as top executives took bonuses. "While the company was losing money, they got a raise," Mooney said. "The rest of us got the doughnut."
It's called LOOTING!
Times Co. and Globe officials declined to comment for this story. Many people at the rally said they couldn't imagine Boston without the Globe.
I can!! I look forward to it!
"Every morning, for 137 years, Bostonians have woken up to their coffee, their breakfasts, and their newspaper," Boston City Council President Michael Ross told the crowd.
And told agenda-pushing, war-promoting lies the whole time!!!
Gerald Lee, 48, an electrician and member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was among the members of other unions who came out to support Globe workers.
Among Lee's reasons: "I would miss the greatest sports writing in the country."
--more--"
Related: Boston Globe Readers Are Idiots
That last guy just proved it.
Also see: And It's One, Two, Three Strikes Your Out at the Old Boston Globe!
Update:
Last Sunday Globe a lemon
That's all I can say about it. I took down only 7 items -- and that is buying and reading the thing -- of which four where update add-ons. Once that ends on May Day, there will be far less reading and visiting to the Globe. It's really a rank piece of crap now and I can see why it's losing big-time dough! The Iraq lies began the downfall of an AmeriKan institution, folks.
