Is there a new book or good (recent) articles about how the New York Times saved itself from financial doom?

February 17, 2010 9:15 AM

Is there a new book or good (recent) articles about how the New York Times saved itself from financial doom?
posted by Jason and Laszlo to Work & Money (6 answers total)

Could you provide a link to the NYT's having saved itself from financial doom? My impression was that the damage to print media, including the NYT, was ongoing?
posted by seventyfour at 9:22 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: indeed, it's ongoing. But the NYT pushed through by upping its online/interactive components, and also firing tons of staff (a rumor, as far as I know, until I read more about it myself).
posted by Jason and Laszlo at 9:23 AM on February 17, 2010

I don't know of any overall articles, but the NYT is trying to sell their stake in the Boston Red Sox. They also threatened to shut the Boston Globe unless they could get $20 million in wage and benefit cuts. They got the cuts; the theory was that they wanted the cuts to prepare the Globe for sale, but then they ultimately decided to keep it.
posted by Melismata at 9:40 AM on February 17, 2010

I haven't checked their balance sheet recently, but I wouldn't call them 'saved' exactly. I'm guessing that the ad market which was apocalyptic is now merely dismal. That along with deep cost-cutting measures, has probably allowed them to at make the payments on the mountain of debt they've accumulated.
posted by Vhanudux at 11:16 AM on February 17, 2010

I'd agree with the other commenters: Reports of the NYT's fiscal health are premature.
posted by yellowcandy at 11:23 AM on February 17, 2010

The company's financial situation in 2009 is laid out pretty thoroughly here. NY Times Co managed to make a small profit for the year by undertaking massive layoffs. That's really the long and short of it. Online revenue was down overall, though advertising on the company's newspaper web sites was up. No special new strategies have been undertaken, as far as I know. (And just a note: The "rumored" firings were no secret. Learning whether they happened was just a Google search away.)
posted by reren at 7:15 PM on February 17, 2010