And John Henry could wait ten years and assume another 93% loss on his money. Don’t these people realize that there is no money in this type of news anymore?
The loss is actually over 100%. They paid $1.1 billion for the Globe and received $70 million on the sale, but also assumed the Globe’s $110 million pension liability. If you subtract that $110 million form the $70 million they received it’s a $40 million on the sale alone that then needs to be added to the total $1.1 billion write off of the original purchase price. Hence, the total loss is $1,140,000,000.
That sounds like the topic of a good folk song.
What are their land holdings and equipment worth in scrap?
“And John Henry could wait ten years and assume another 93% loss on his money. Don’t these people realize that there is no money in this type of news anymore?”
Apparently not. I initially figured Henry must have been another one of those billionaires who were so old that they had to turn the charging crank on the telephone before making a call when they were growing up, but I checked, and Henry is only 64. Like Vincent said in “Pulp Fiction”, he should fuching better know better.
It’s even a losing proposition for our side. Our billionaires would be much better to buy a struggling cable/satellite channel and convert it to a hard core conservative news and entertainment venue. At least, if I was a conservative billionaire and was looking for an entertaining hobby, that’s what I would do.
Don’t these people realize that there is no money in this type of news anymore?
A worthy question, kempster, to which I don't claim to have the answer. All I've got is a hunch: properly managed, a big city newspaper ought to be able to break even and turn a modest profit. The new owner ought to diversify the Globe into direct advertising media and internet sites, as well as transform the "news" paper back into a legitimate newspaper. I doubt the market for news has evaporated; whether newspapers can boot-strap themselves out of the past, however, remains to be seen.
I think a conservative newspaper with strong tight local circulation and coverage would work.