• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, July 12, 2013

Big deals are afoot in the newspaper industry, as newspaper publishers seek to divest themselves of less-profitable properties. To that end The New York Times Co. has received at least three viable bids for The Boston Globe, according to the Globe, which reported the news this week; the three bidders were selected from at least seven bids received by NYTCO by the end of June.  
 
The list of remaining bidders includes John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox, Robert Loring, owner of the Tampa Tribune, and Ben and Steve Taylor, members of the family which owned the Globe until 1993, when NYTCO acquired it for $1.1 billion. The Taylors, who are cousins, are bidding in association with former Time Inc. CEO Jack Griffin. The Globe reports that Doug Manchester, a wealthy property developer who bought the San Diego Union-Tribune last year, may also have a bid in play. The bids are said to range from $65 million to $80 million.
 
Indeed, whoever ends up owning the Globe, there’s virtually no chance NYTCO will receive anything close to the sum it paid in 1993, reflecting the steep decline in the fortunes of the newspaper business resulting from the transition to digital media.
 
Revenues at NYTCO’s New England Media Group, which includes The Boston Globe, fell 43.6% from $701 million in 2004 to $395 million in 2012, with advertising revenue falling 61.4% from $482 million to $186 million, and circulation revenue falling 12.7% from $181 million to $158 million over the same period.
 
This isn’t the first time NYTCO has tried to sell the newspaper, or at least received offers for it. 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. It subsequently received three proposals from 2009-2011, among them a bid from a group of Massachusetts investors and businessmen including the Taylors, who offered more than $200 million for the New England Media Group, but the company rejected all these.

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.

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