THE KRUGMAN EFFECT: Value of Boston Globe Plummets From $1 Billion to $75 Million

Liberalism isn't just a mental disorder: it's also a horrible business model.

...After purchasing the Boston Globe in 1993 for a then-record $1.1 billion, the financially troubled New York Times just announced it sold the 141 year-old paper to Boston Red Sox owner John Henry for a mere $70 million. That’s a straight 93% loss. Figuring in two decades of inflation would only make it worse — as does the fact the Times retains the Globe’s pension liabilities, estimated at over $100 million...

...In 2011, the Times turned down a $300 million offer from Aaron Kushner, CEO of Freedom Communications, Inc., publisher of the Orange County Register and other newspapers in California. This offer even included the assumption of pension liabilities, which are currently estimated at $110 million.

The Times itself reports that today’s sale to Henry does not include pension liabilities. Apparently, those remain a Times’ responsibility and expense...

Think about this for a second.

The New York Times turned down an offer 4 times as large that included the pension costs in order to avoid selling this paper to the owners of the Orange County Register...

• Imagine a Movie section where the liberal themes of a picture were noted and tweaked while the conservative themes were highlighted and celebrated...
• Imagine a culture section where events of a conservative nature were celebrated while liberals pressed to get the press...
• Imagine reviews of plays with conservative themes getting web space and print space and liberal themes hoping for a line or two...
• Imagine stories in the Sunday section celebrating historic places, people and sites that highlight America’s conservative History or people who are conservative doing great things for the community...
• Imagine a whole slew of conservative Journalists cutting their teeth of straight news instead of news with a liberal spin, imagine the farm team it would create...
• Imagine an editorial page giving conservative opinion day after day after day...

What’s $230 million dollars and pension costs to the shareholders when it’s held up against keeping those dirty conservatives out of the neighborhood? Particularly with a tough election coming up in 2014...

Was the management of The New York Times really willing to screw its shareholders out of hundreds of millions of dollars in order to keep its ideological propaganda machine pure?

If true, shareholders should be exploring retaliatory measures.


Hat tip:

Keeping the Neighborhood Pure: The Sale of the Boston Globe http://t.co/Fgvf5JGb24

— BadBlue News (@BadBlueNews) August 3, 2013