Newspapers Going Bankrupt; Dems Want Bailed Out ‘Independent’ Media
The New York Times and the Boston Globe are both in dire straits. To add more fuel to the fire, the Boston Globe is owned by the New York Times and both papers are losing significant amounts of money and are experiencing severe debt problems.
As The New York Times Co. tries to bask in the glory of having bagged five Pulitzers, the company is facing a cash crunch that could put it on the path toward insolvency.
According to its first-quarter earnings report, the Times said it had cash and cash equivalents totaling $294 million.
However, $260 million of that is earmarked to pay off debt that matures in March 2010, effectively leaving the company with $34 million.
That’s a particularly precarious position to be in, given the Gray Lady posted a wider-than-expected, first-quarter loss of $74.5 million amid worsening advertising declines, and is scrambling to raise cash as it labors under a $1.3 billion debt load.
This should be an indication of ultra liberal slants on newspapers and how they fare in Capitalist environments. Most newspapers will probably go the way of the Internet with paid member subscriptions, but it’s quite interesting how most of the papers going out of business are more liberal than right-leaning. Read more
