End (New York) Times (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

The Atlantic ^ | Jan/Feb 2009 | Michael Hirschorn

[abb]

Virtually all the predictions about the death of old media have assumed a comfortingly long time frame for the end of print—the moment when, amid a panoply of flashing lights, press conferences, and elegiac reminiscences, the newspaper presses stop rolling and news goes entirely digital. Most of these scenarios assume a gradual crossing-over, almost like the migration of dunes, as behaviors change, paradigms shift, and the digital future heaves fully into view. The thinking goes that the existing brands—The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal—will be the ones making that transition, challenged but still dominant as sources of original reporting.

But what if the old media dies much more quickly? What if a hurricane comes along and obliterates the dunes entirely? Specifically, what if TheNew York Times goes out of business—like, this May?

It’s certainly plausible. Earnings reports released by the New York Times Company in October indicate that drastic measures will have to be taken over the next five months or the paper will default on some $400million in debt. With more than $1billion in debt already on the books, only $46million in cash reserves as of October, and no clear way to tap into the capital markets (the company’s debt was recently reduced to junk status), the paper’s future doesn’t look good.

“As part of our analysis of our uses of cash, we are evaluating future financing arrangements,” the Times Company announced blandly in October, referring to the crunch it will face in May. “Based on the conversations we have had with lenders, we expect that we will be able to manage our debt and credit obligations as they mature.” This prompted Henry Blodget... to write: “‘We expect that we will be able to manage’? Translation: There’s a possibility that we won’t manage.”

snip

[MinuteGal]

Excellent observation....and funny as all get-out.

Leni

[SevenofNine]

Tell me when the LA Times cease to exist

[abb]

http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/
Breaking: Is another big payroll cut in the works?

[Carl LaFong]

Maybe they can sell ads for X-ray specs, Whoopie Cushions, and Sea Monkeys on the front page.

[Question_Assumptions]

If the New York Times and Washington Post go out of business, how are the network news programs going to know what to report on? I guess they’ll just have to go directly to the Daily Kos for marching ordrs.

[shove_it]

The Times will be nationalized to function as the PR Dept. under the The 0ne’s Regime. It is a National Treasure and Too Big To Fail.

[abb]

http://dcrtv.com/

9 Cutting Weekend Morning News - 1/6 - UPDATED: DCRTV first reported on Monday that budget-slashing Gannett’s Channel 9/WUSA will be axing its low-rated weekend morning newscasts. Last one: 1/18. The replacement: Mainly revenue-generating infomercials. In a staff memo, WUSA President/General Manager Allan Horlick writes: “Effective January 24th, we have decided to utilize the Saturday and Sunday morning time periods where we have traditionally produced our weekend morning newscasts, as the launch pad for a variety of new initiatives which we will now be free to develop. Some of this content may be produced under the direction of our Information Center and some by other departments in the station... These time periods will be used to directly generate sales revenue through outside productions”.....

[Lancey Howard]

But what if the old media dies much more quickly?

Please may it happen quickly, but with as much suffering as possible. I want everybody associated with those liberal, socialist, America-hating newsrooms to lose their jobs, their savings, their homes, and their families. The damage they have done to traditional American culture cannot be overstated.

Happy New Year!
LH

[MinuteGal]

So the Slimes is a BILLION in debt and has only 46 Mil in cash.

What happened to living within a budget like the rag preaches the government (and we) should do?

The liberal Times management and the DemoRat crooks in Congress are interchangeable when it comes to economic smarts in running anything.

Disaster for each is inevitable and was foreordained when each started taking in each other's laundry over five decades ago.

Both entities are broke......financially and morally.

The Slimes is looking for an FDR in Barack Marx Obama.......and it ain't gonna happen.

Leni

[RobinOfKingston]

Pinch needs to close down while there is enough money left, either directly or through a sale, to sustain him in the style to which he has become accustomed.

[abb]

http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/
Times Shatters Tradition with P.1 Ad

[andyandval]

Hey Pinch, you gay maggot, burn those cash assets like an arsonist on hire from Jersey

That is awesome!

LOL!

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

But what if the old media dies much more quickly? What if a hurricane comes along and obliterates the dunes entirely? Specifically, what if TheNew York Times goes out of business—like, this May?

Please, oh please.

[muawiyah]

The first MSM dailies to move onto the internet were LA Times and Washington Post. Both papers paid well over $100,000,000 to set up their websites ~ and did so long before anyone had any practice with figuring out what kind of "format" you had to have on the net to attract users.

Having made that major (as yet unproductive) investment their legal beagles had a hissy fit the first time Free Republic and other websites began referencing them (so we could disuss, disect and criticize their news articles).

So the LA Times and the Post SUED.

Since then they've had a devil of a time getting anybody reputable with serious internet experience to run their on-line show for them.

They never will either, but they set the pattern for dealing with internet competition ~ sue first even before there's a market for your stuff, which is why I stay away from both websites. You can't trust those pukes. Eventually they will sue their readers, just the same as when they sued their only expositors. We gave them coverage they couldn't get on their own and they rejected it.

When they close down WarshPost headquarters I might buy a desk or something ~ as long as I can get Ben Bradley to sign it!

[abb]

You’ve touched on part of what I picked up in the Slate piece. The Drive-Bys always felt themselves arbiters of what was and wasn’t ‘news.’ They ‘commanded’ the story. Of course the internet allowed instant feedback, and they just couldn’t stand that. It would upend generations of inbreeding.

A species such as what the NYT and the WaPo have bred themselves into cannot ever be made useful. They merely need to be exterminated.

Metaphorically speaking, of course...

[GOPGuide]

What would Murdoch do with the Times if he buys after the TimesCo goes BK?

Would he strip the paper down to the bare bones operations so that the WSJ reigns supreme over New York or will he try to make the NYTimes paper profitable like he did with the Journal?

[abb]

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20090106/forbes-layoffs-finally-arrive-19-fired-from-magazine-web/
Forbes Layoffs Finally Arrive: 19 Fired From Magazine, Web

[abb]

or will he try to make the NYTimes paper profitable like he did with the Journal?

I'm not sure he's made the WSJ profitable. I've not seen any numbers broken out for them since he took them over.

[GOPGuide]

If the market for newspapers is shrinking in NY, then Murdoch may discretely run the NYTimes into the ground just to make sure there is no serious competition for the Journal.

[abb]

They’re doing just fine on their own. Rupert needs to do nothing to help, lol.