A man walks by the front of The Boston Globe headquarters in May 2009 in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The New York Times Co. has extended the deadline for initial bids for the Boston Globe newspaper, the Times reported Wednesday.
The New York Times Co. has extended the deadline for initial bids for the Boston Globe newspaper, the Times reported Wednesday.
The newspaper said the initial bidding was to have closed on Wednesday but has now been extended until late July.
"Prospective buyers were not prepared to make bids on the quick timetable originally set by the company and asked for more time," the Times said.
It said potential bidders want to wait for the outcome of a July 20 vote by the nearly 700 members of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the largest union at Globe, on whether to accept concessions in pay, benefits and job security.
The Times Co. recently reached agreement on 10 million dollars in wage and benefit cuts with the Boston Newspaper Guild, making the newspaper potentially more attractive to a buyer.
The Times also reported that two prominent Boston businessmen, Stephen Pagliuca and Jack Connors, have joined forces for a possible bid.
The Times Co. is seeking to sell the money-losing Boston Globe, another Massachusetts paper, the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, and also wants the buyer to take on 59 million dollars in pension liabilities.
The Times Co. bought the Boston Globe for 1.1 billion dollars in 1993 but the value of the newspaper has plummeted since then along with the fortunes of the US newspaper industry.
The Times Co. bought the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, the largest newspaper in central Massachusetts, for 295 million dollars in 2000.
Like other US newspapers, the Globe has been grappling with a steep drop in print advertising revenue, steadily declining circulation and the migration of readers to free news online.
Before the cuts, the Globe had been forecast to lose 85 million dollars this year, according to the Times Co., which has been struggling with escalating losses of its own and a heavy debt burden.
The Times Co. recently completed a sale-leaseback deal for part of its Manhattan headquarters in a move aimed at raising cash to pay down its debt.
It also received a 250-million-dollar loan from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.
The Times is also seeking a buyer for its 17.75 percent stake in New England Sports Ventures, which owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team and the iconic stadium, Fenway Park.
With a weekday circulation of around 300,000, the Boston Globe is the 17th largest newspaper in the United States. It began publishing in 1872.
© 2009 AFP
