Posted on 11/22/2008 4:06:11 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
New York Times Co. shares tumble to new low
By David B. Wilkerson, MarketWatch
Last update: 4:06 p.m. EST Nov. 21, 2008 Comments: 48
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- New York Times Co. shares fell sharply Friday after the company cut its quarterly dividend by 74% and indicated there would be no immediate turnaround to a steep decline in advertising revenue.
New York Times Co. ( NYT 5.34, -0.38, -6.6%) stock fell 7% to close at $5.32. The stock hit a new 52-week low of $4.95 during the session.
New York Times Co. said late Thursday that it has slashed its quarterly dividend to 6 cents a share from 23 cents in the face of an unprecedented decline in advertising revenue across the newspaper industry. Mirroring the dire performance of other stocks in the newspaper world, the stock has plummeted more than 80% in the past three years.
In a statement, the founding Ochs-Sulzberger family's trust said that "while [the decision was] very difficult for all shareholders, it is the appropriate and prudent business response given the extraordinary challenges of the current economic environment." Chairman Arthur Sulzberger said the cut, "coupled with our other actions, will help us decrease debt and improve the liquidity of the company." The company has cut jobs and reduced other costs in recent months. It recently announced the closure of the New York Times' quarterly sports magazine, Play.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Ping!
The NYT is the ghost of a once credible newspaper. A year ago its CEO disdained to respond to my criticisms and suggestions, so I shrugged them off. Currently the paper confuses editorial with news and puts out a raggedy product that's harder to read than most weeklies. When they cut the size and combined sections they neglected to get the right equipment and inform the pressmen how to calibrate, so most pages need to be de-wrinkled by the reader, are out of register, are trimmed into the text, and have ink smudges obliterating the outside columns. Sloppy product equals careless management equal abandonment.
sweeeeeeeeeeet
Meanwhile, the NYT has fretted on their editorial page about Sarah Palin being interviewed while turkeys are being slaughtered.
The irony and double entendres just generate themselves from this point.
I wonder if they will fly to DC for a bailout or just have them bring the check to New York.
” I think Obama will bail it out. “
As we speak, the Times is trying to figure out how to claim ‘bank’ status so they can belly-up to the $700bn trough.....
NYT has a huge debt payment coming up in May 2009. That’s going to be the final nail in the coffin, I’d think.
Something on the order of $480,000,000 is due in the first week of May and they have less than $30,000,000 on hand. Corporate financing has all but disappeared, especially for companies losing money like the Times is.
W was criticized for not taking on the media seriously like Bill Clinton. W ignored the media, we are now seeing the result. Result matters and the today’s MSM credibility is W’s biggest achievement.
I read an article the other day stating many institutional investors and pension funds are required not to hold stocks that are less than $5 per share. If NYT falls below this threshold than there could be another wave stock selling for NYT.
I am trying to feel bad . . . trying harder . . . really pressing it now . . . nope. Can’t feel a thing except the smile that formed when I read the title. :-)
Maybe we should pool our money here at FR. LOL. Now that would sure be a twist wouldn’t it?
But...but...without the NYT, what would we wrap the fish or line the trash with?
Well, the Sulzberger daily journal is reflecting the Consumer’s disdain for what they produce.
That is a good thing I think, when the rest of the Sulzberger Trustafarains see their checks shrink perhaps they will boot the old boy out and sell out to NewsCorp...
Will the Dems bail it out, or nationalize it and combine it into some massive state run media monstrosity akin to the UK’s BBC?
I feel like doing a Rahm Emanuel act, stabbing a table with a steak knife while yelling: “N.Y. Slimes—Dead! Washington ComPost—Dead! SeeBS—Dead!”
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