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Newspapers For Sale Draw Few Buyers

Financial Times, Friday, December 19, 2008 10 AM

Some 30 American newspapers are up for sale including the 149-year-old Rocky Mountain News, owned by EW Scripps, and the San Diego Union Tribune. But in spite of rock bottom prices, few buyers have emerged.

Sale valuations for papers, once in the lofty eight to 10-times operating cash flow, now yield no more than a four-to-six-multiple, according to Ed Atorino, Benchmark analyst.

The most high-profile candidate under review is The Boston Globe, owned by the New York Times Co. Just two years ago, it was valued at $650 million by Jack Welch, former General Electric CEO, and a consortium of buyers. The offer was rebuffed. Now there are no buyers in the market for the Globe or other large papers, says a media investment banker. The Times paid $1.1 billion for the Boston paper in 2003.

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