Boston Globe, once bought for $1.1 billion, sells for $70 million

AP via nbcnews.com ^ | August 3, 2013 | AP

[John W]

BOSTON -- The New York Times Co. says it has agreed to sell The Boston Globe to the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox for $70 million, a massive drop from the record $1.1 billion it paid for it.

Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy confirms the sale of the Globe and other media properties to businessman John Henry.

The Times bought the Globe in 1993. Newspapers have faced difficulties in recent years as advertisers have moved more ads online.

The Times announced in February it was putting the Globe up for sale. The company's CEO said at the time selling the Globe would help the company focus attention on The New York Times brand.

Henry says the Globe's "award-winning journalism" and "its rich history and tradition of excellence" have established it as one of the most well-respected media companies in the country.

[Venturer]

Actually they do a pretty good job of washing windows without leaving smears.

[bjc]

I have always said that the only reliable facts in the Boston Globe are the ball scores and even then you need to find another source.

[FreedomPoster]

Just doing the math, that’s a -12.9% ROI over 20 years.

Stupid ought to hurt. Too bad they were able to cover it up for so many years.

[FreedomPoster]

Annual ROI, I should have said.

[MrEdd]

Its worth however much scrap metal is in the presses.

[metesky]

The crossword puzzle?

[Bulgaricus1]

I wouldn’t give a wooden nickle for it!

[Long Jon No Silver]

Wouldn’t bother wrapping fish n’ chips in that rag. If I was camping out though, I would use it to wipe the the old you know whatsy. Love you freepers. That’s my ten cents worth from the land down under. 100 per cent Aussie beef.

[SamAdams76]

Does anybody remember those metal newspaper vending boxes that used to be everywhere? You would put a quarter or two into the box, pull a handle, and take out a newspaper. In the Boston area, you used to see yellow boxes for the Herald and green boxes for the Globe. Also, USA Today used to have all those white boxes with blue trim.

Anyway, these newspaper vending boxes are going the way of pay telephone booths. Besides, they charge so much these days that most people don't have the pocket change to buy one even if they wanted to.

The newspaper industry is in its dying throes. In 1994, you could still rent a videotape at a corner drugstore but you just knew that industry was on its way out, especially when the selections were "Karate Kid", "Toto - Live in Concert" and "Ernest Goes To Camp."

Well you can still buy a newspaper but you might want to shrink wrap it and put in up in your attic. Might be a collectors item someday, when our grandchildren grow up and want to see what a printed newspaper looked like. They will gaze at it in puzzled fascination in the same manner that we like to see "Mad Men" on TV when women used to wear dresses to work and men wore those funny looking fedora hats when they went outside. (Two cheers for having mini-bars in your office at work!)

Speaking of advertising ("Mad Men"), the newspaper is quickly becoming irrelevant. If you want to sell your boat (and what boat owner doesn't?), you would post your ad on Craigslist or some other website like that. Not in your local newspaper, which nobody reads. Or at least not anybody with enough money to buy a boat.

About the only newspaper worth anything these days is the Wall Street Journal and they appear to have stayed ahead of the curve with respect to having an online presence. Their web-based newspaper is first rate. But even they try to get you to take their print edition as well, even though the WSJ print edition is difficult to ready on my backyard picnic table because the wind keeps blowing it all over the place and bugs climb all over it. It's also tough to turn the pages and get them back folded again where it looks neat and tidy. It's so much better to just take my tablet to the picnic table and read the WSJ that way.

[AU72]

Yesterday my wife told me she ran out of paper to line the bottom of the bird cage. I told her I’ll pick up a Globe Saturday.

[PghBaldy]

One of my local papers, (Pittsburgh) Tribune-Review is pretty good. Owned by Richard Mellon Scaife.

[Fresh Wind]

The Boston Glub, glub, glub...

[Hardastarboard]

The New York Times is antiprogressive. The sale of the Globe means no more capital gins taxes for life.

That was a VERY intelligent, informed post. You're right. Conservatives need to loudly and belligerently accuse the NYT of being tax dodgers.

[MinuteGal]

Folks are always dreaming that some super-wealthy conservative or conservative amalgamation will start a conservative newspaper. They won't.

The reasons are in this thread.

Dream on....

Leni

[EQAndyBuzz]

Conservatives should go after the newspaper companies for killing trees and causing pollution.

For companies that support conservative values, give them exemptions. For companies the support the liberal agenda, it is obvious that they are destroying the environment and need to be closely regulated.

Drive the left mad.

[oh8eleven]

Yesterday my wife told me she ran out of paper to line the bottom of the bird cage.
Went to my son's house to babysit my granddaughter last night and noticed three copies of a local rag that is VERY liberal.
When I asked my son why he had any copies, let alone three, he said they fit the bottom of the bird cage perfectly - and they're free.

[muir_redwoods]

They sell them in books :)

[BwanaNdege]

Actually they do a pretty good job of washing windows without leaving smears.

True!

I forgot that excellent use for old newspaper! It must be time to clean the windows again...

[Venturer]

It’s hard to find an old newspaper around my house I don’t buy them, but there is a free County Paper that I get save for that purpose.

I have tried every brand of smear proof window cleaner that you can name on the windshield of my car, but early morning and late evening the smears always come back.

Auto windshields are almost impossible to get rid of smears when the sun hits them right.

[JCBreckenridge]

Don’t forget it comes inhabited with reporters.