NYTCO Tries To Sell 'Boston Globe' Again

Boston-GlobeThe New York Times Co. is putting The Boston Globe back on the auction block. The sale of the Globe would be the last big sale in a series of divestitures by the company, which is shedding non-core properties to focus on its flagship brand.

That's according to two unnamed sources cited by Bloomberg, which said the newspaper publisher is working on the potential sale with Evercore Partners.
 
This would not be the first time NYTCO has sought to unload the Globe, which like other big metro dailies has suffered from the precipitous decline in print advertising spending over the last decade. However, the publisher is unlikely to receive anywhere near the $1.1 billion it paid for the newspaper back in 1993.
 
In 2006, former GE boss Jack Welch offered to buy The Boston Globe for $600 million, but NYTCO rejected the offer. In 2009, NYTCO first threatened to close the paper if unions didn’t make concessions on pensions and benefits, then put the paper up for sale once these concessions were made.

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It subsequently received three proposals from 2009-2011, including a bid from a group of Massachusetts investors and businessmen who offered more than $200 million for NYTCO’s New England Media Group, but the company rejected all.

Since then, NYTCO has sold its stake in New England Sports Ventures, which owns the Boston Red Sox and associated cable TV properties, leaving The Boston Globe and Worcester Telegram & Gazette as the last remaining parts of NYTCO’s former New England holdings.

Outside Massachusetts, the company also sold About.com and its regional newspapers, acquired by Halifax Media Holdings in 2011.

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