(I used to work for the Worcester T&G, which was part of the New York Times family and I remain thoroughly fascinated by the business)

New York Times in November had a 21% decline in advertising revenue over Nov ’07. That’s enormous — and it follows year-to-date declines of 16% in October and 14% in September. Let’s not forget these aren’t sudden occurences — ad revenue has been declining since the dot.com bubble burst. (Particularly in the top tier papers like the Globe and the Times, dot.coms spent a lot of money on help wanted and pat-yourself-on-the-back ads)

The Times is looking to take out a mortgage on their recently completed new headquarters (kind of dot.com-ish in building fancy buildings…) as well as sell their 17.5% ownership in the Boston Red Sox (again, dot.com-ish in investments far away from core businesses).

Once those moves are made, there’s not much else they can sell without causing even deeper long term damage — such as selling off about.com which would raise some quick cash, but deny them the long term income stream in a growing market.

(I used to work for the Worcester T&G, which was part of the New York Times family and I remain thoroughly fascinated by the business)

New York Times in November had a 21% decline in advertising revenue over Nov ’07. That’s enormous — and it follows year-to-date declines of 16% in October and 14% in September. Let’s not forget these aren’t sudden occurences — ad revenue has been declining since the dot.com bubble burst. (Particularly in the top tier papers like the Globe and the Times, dot.coms spent a lot of money on help wanted and pat-yourself-on-the-back ads)

The Times is looking to take out a mortgage on their recently completed new headquarters (kind of dot.com-ish in building fancy buildings…) as well as sell their 17.5% ownership in the Boston Red Sox (again, dot.com-ish in investments far away from core businesses).

Once those moves are made, there’s not much else they can sell without causing even deeper long term damage — such as selling off about.com which would raise some quick cash, but deny them the long term income stream in a growing market.