Two Prominent New England Dailies on the Block

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Autumn in New England and the leaves--and daily newspapers--continue to fall.

If you have oodles of cash on hand and a slight masochistic streak, you might contact Stevens, a privately held independent financial services firm, and put in a bid for The Providence Journal, which the Rhode Island Public Radio Website (www.ripr.org) reports is for sale.

ProJo's owner, Dallas-based A.H. Belo, which doled out $1.5 billion in 1997 to purchase the Providence daily and its associated tv stations, is looking to unload ProJo, so that it can focus its attention on its core market in Big D, according to the RIPR post.

Meanwhile, last week John Henry, gazillionaire owner of the Boston Red Sox and Boston Globe, told staffers at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette--New England's third-largest daily--that he was looking for an interested local party to purchase the T & G, which was part of Henry's  $70 million Globe acquisition from the New York Times (see "TUOL" post 8/6/13).  The Times paid $296 million for the T & G in 2000, which it folded into its New England Media Group, along with the Globe.

Couldn't have been too comforting for Worcester editorial staffers to read Henry's October 27 letter in the Globe titled "Why I Bought the Globe" that failed to even mention his T& G acquisition. No potential buyers have stepped forward, though Gatehouse Media, Inc., freshly emerged from a structured Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is rumored to be interested.

Prospective Buyers of Boston Globe Will Submit Bids This Week

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With the looming April 18 deadline set by The New York Times and Evercore Partners investment bankers to receive initial bids to purchase the New England Media Group (NEMG), two groups of buyers have surfaced, according to a report by NEMG property The Boston Globe.

Former Globe publisher Ben Taylor and cousin Steve Taylor have joined with a group fronted by former Time, Inc. CEO Jack Griffin and are expected to submit a bid, the Globe reported. So too is a group that includes former Globe president Rick Daniels and private equity mogul Heberden Ryan, according to the Globe article.

The Times announced a couple of months back that it was seeking a buyer for NEMG, which includes the Globe, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and their respective Web sites, along with direct mail marketing co. GlobeDirect (see "TUOL" post 2/21/13).

Any offers received this week would not be binding, according to the Globe article.

New York Times Looking to Unload Papers 'en Mass.'

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The Gray Lady apparently is weary of  long-distance relationships, as Reuters, AdWeek and others are reporting that The New York Times wants to sell The Boston Globe and The Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

The Times has enlisted the aid of Evercore Partners to advise on the sale of the properties in its New England Media Group, which include the Globe, Telegram & Gazette, the two dailies' Web sites and GlobeDirect, a direct mail marketing company.

Newspaper industry analysts expect the Times to take a bath in the deal. One analyst, according to Reuters, thought the purchase price for the Globe, New England's largest daily newspaper, might be in the $150 million range, a far cry from the $1.1 billion the Times paid to acquire the broadsheet in 1993.

The Times' Media Decoder Blog reported that the Times rejected a $35 million offer to sell the Globe in 2009, the AdWeek article stated.  The 360 or so souls in the Globe newsroom are understandably antsy, while media prognosticators are reveling in the parlor game of identifying the Globe's suitors.  Times CEO/President Mark Thompson said the Times wants to concentrate on its own brand and journalism as explanation for why his paper wants to end what at times has been a trying marriage.

The Globe is "TUOL"'s local newspaper, and the devoted staff, which currently is exasperated by increasingly late delivery of the paper, expects a local buyer to step to the forefront, rather than an out-of-state entrepreneur or media conglomerate.

Gray Lady Wants 30 Staffers to Accept Voluntary Buyouts

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Plagued by declines in print and digital advertising, The New York Times wants 30 nonunion managers to accept voluntary buyout packages by January 24, 2013, the daily announced today.

The buyout offer, which is unavailable to editorial staffers, according to Executive Editor Jill Abramson, is in response to a near 11 percent drop-off in print advertising among New York Times newspapers, which include the Times, Boston Globe and Worcester Telegram & Gazette, and a 2.2 percent decline in digital advertising, according to the Gray Lady's most recent earnings report.

If the Times doesn't reach its goal of 30 workers accepting severance packages, Abramson indicated that the daily would resort to layoffs.

Globe Takes Turn for the Worst: Voluntary Buyouts Offered

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)Forty-three Boston Globe workers, union members and management alike--including 20 newsroom staffers--have been offered voluntary buyouts, and another 10 employees were laid off, according to Globe Publisher and New England Media Group ("NEMG") President Christopher M. Mayer.

According to a report by the Globe's rival, the tabloid Boston Herald, the New York Times-owned broadsheet in May saw its daily circulation drop below 200,000 for the first time ever, fueling speculation that the Globe and another Times property, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, may soon be offered for sale. Reportedly, the Telegram & Gazette laid off one staffer and offered voluntary buyouts to another 10.

According to a report by the Poynter.org Web site, the T & G will eliminate slots and layoffs will ensue if the buyouts are not accepted.  The Globe, which boasts a work force of 1,881, does not anticipate universal acceptance of the buyout offer. As part of a cost-savings measure, the Globe reportedly plans to close its suburban bureaus.