Value-wise, I doubt if you could put a price-tag on the newspaper in terms of return....of more than $10 million. There’s simply no real profit...so it’s a matter of status. If you claim ownership...you can attend parties, get dimwit foundations to invite you to functions, and have lobbyists crowd around to pump you up. Maybe that makes the paper worth $250 million.
The fact that folks don’t quote the NY Times like they did in the 1960s....also is a problem. Given a choice of a USA Today or New York Times, if traveling, I’ll pick the USA Today every time.
On the bright side, if the NYT was sold in Venezuela, it would truly be the paper of choice. There's a TP shortage...
If I had a choice between reading USA today and punching out my optic nerves with kebab skewers, hand me the skewers man.
CC
I remember a 20 question interview of Richard Branson years ago (in the Boston Globe).
“How do you become a millionaire?” “Easy. You start with a billion, and buy an airline.” (rim shot)
The Slimes bought the Boston Globe and some other properties for over $1B, and sold the Globe for around $70M after ~20 years.
If the Slimes sold for less, that would be notable in a case study at business school, but not unexpected.