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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Moody's Investors Service on Friday placed New York Times Co.'s (NYT) A2 senior unsecured long term debt, and P-1 commercial paper ratings on review for possible downgrade. The agency said the review is prompted by Moody's growing concerns about the media company's high financial leverage, deteriorating operating margins and weak free cash flow available for debt reduction, combined with concerns over intensifying cross media competition, including the Internet, and growing event risk in the newspaper sector. A multi-notch ratings transition will be considered in light of the company's financial and operating challenges, Moody's said.

Link here: http://johnellis.blogspot.com/WeblogHow much are 500 weblogs worth? $410 million! Or $820,000.00 per weblog! How do I know this? Because that's what the New York Times paid Prime Media (KKR) for About.com. You can't make this stuff up. Here's some (mostly) positive comment, including the NYT press release. In fact, the deal is an embarrassment of overpayment and reveals a kind of strategic ennui. The "metro" strategy of marketing the newspaper has failed. The television strategy has failed. The great Internet opportunity of 2000-2001 has long since passed (the NYT company could have acquired Yahoo! for a relative song in...

When I left a steady newspaper job nine years ago to help launch this online news site, many people called me nuts. Too risky, no credibility and no brand loyalty, the naysayers said. It seemed OK to me: I'd worked at big daily newspapers and a magazine for 15 years, and, as a news hound, welcomed the chance to publish scoops in real time. It's a simple "model," as the MBAs put it: We get a scoop and publish it on the Internet ASAP. No "back shop," no printers, no newspaper delivery people. Readers like it, and the print competitors...

The New York Times Co. has agreed to buy About.com from Primedia Inc. in an all-cash deal valued at about $410 million. The company says the deal will give it the 12th-largest Internet presence and a platform for future growth on the Web. The Times Co., whose digital properties include NYTimes.com and Boston.com, has a current base of 13 million users, while About.com has 22 million monthly users. About.com has an advertising-supported network of sites run by experts who provide advice on topics ranging from personal finance to consumer electronics. The Times Co. says it expects to operate About.com as...

"President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney answered questions before the 9/11 commission ... They did not testify under oath, there was no videotape, no audiotape, not even a stenographer writing down the questions or the answers; there's no record of any kind; kind of like President Bush's National Guard service." —Jay Leno "President Bush and Vice President Cheney went before the commission investigating what exactly happened on 9/11. The President is weird...afterwards, he told reporters he 'enjoyed' it. What? You can say many things, but you can't 'enjoy' it. We kicked back, talked about 9/11, there were cookies —...