Is the mood 'frantic' inside the NYT?

Is the mood 'frantic' inside the NYT?

The figures would suggest it might well be, but there is nothing in this story from the Murdoch-owned New York Post that indicates or even proves it is.

This story, posted last Thursday, had received no ratings or comments on the NYPost website, which would suggest one thing at least and that's that the NYPost's readership aren't frantically interested in the story.

FRANTIC TIMES EYES DIVIDEND

By HOLLY M. SANDERS
Last updated: 11:03 amOctober 24, 2008 Posted: 4:29 amOctober 24, 2008
The New York Times Co. is considering cutting the rich dividend it pays to shareholders, including the controlling Sulzberger family, after its debt was cut to junk.
The company is under intense pressure to cut the $132 million annual payout while still under the sway of a family that reaps $25 million a year in dividends.
Some analysts and investors have said cutting the dividend could divide the family and make some members more amenable to a sale.
"Our board of directors plans to review our dividend policy before the end of this year to determine what is most prudent in light of the overall market conditions," CEO Janet Robinson said in a statement.
The company, which owns more than a dozen papers, said overall revenue fell 9 percent, while ad revenue skidded 14 percent.
Standard & Poor's cut its debt rating on the company to junk after the results came out, saying it expects the economic downturn to exacerbate advertising declines for at least another year.
Moody's Investors Service also said it may cut the Times Co.'s debt to below investment grade.
The S&P downgrade came after the close of regular markets, sending the stock down nearly 4 percent in late trading. The shares closed at $10.70 in regular trading.
The Times said it's looking at ways to reduce more than $1 billion in debt, although execs acknowledged it would be tough to sell assets in this economy.
The Times Co. has about $430 million in debt coming due over the next couple of years, while a $400 million credit line is set to expire in May 2009.
The company, which had $46 million in cash at the end of the quarter, is holding talks with lenders about restructuring its debt and said it expects to meet its obligations.
In another sign of the paper's woes, the company may write down the value of its New England newspapers, including the Boston Globe, by as much as $150 million.
The Times Co. has been cutting costs, including jobs at its flagship paper, and said it is looking to trim elsewhere.
Profit plunged 51 percent to $6.5 million, or 5 cents a share, on revenue of $687 million.
Online advertising grew 10 percent in the quarter, although it wasn't enough to offset a 16 percent drop in newspaper ad sales.

READ AN ALTERNATIVE IHT DAILY NARRATIVE AT
A PLACE IN THE AUVERGNE

LOOKING FOR A CHRISTMAS BOOK GIFT TO BUY?

"Books about cosmopolitan urbanites discovering the joys of country life are two a penny, but this one is worth a second glance. Walthew's vivid description of the moral stress induced by his job as a high-flying executive with the International Herald Tribune newspaper is worth the cover price alone…. Highly recommended." The Oxford Times

International Herald Tribune
IHT
New York Times
The NYT Company

Vacation /Business Trip Furnished Rental Apartment in Paris

Moody's may cut New York Times into junk territory (Thu Oct 23, 2000 Reuters)

No surprises here but there is something chilling about reading it in someone else's words.

'The cost to insure the [NYT] company's debt with credit default swaps rose to 477.50 basis points on Thursday, or $477,500 per year for five years to insure $10 million in debt, from 460 basis points on Wednesday, according to Markit Intraday.'

Moody's may cut New York Times into junk territory
Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:42pm EDT

NEW YORK, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service said on Thursday it may cut its ratings on New York Times Co (NYT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) into junk territory, citing concerns about continuing revenue declines and risks associated with refinancing its debt.
The New York Times posted a quarterly loss from continuing operations on Thursday and said advertising revenue at its news media group dropped 16 percent for the quarter.
Newspaper advertising market conditions are likely to remain challenging in 2009 and continuing revenue declines will make it difficult for the company to bring its credit metrics in line with its investment grade rating, Moody's said in a statement.
It will also make it hard for the publisher to execute its plans to improve liquidity, Moody's added.
Moody's said it may cut the New York Times from "Baa3," the lowest investment grade. Downgrades into junk territory can significantly increase a company's borrowing costs.
Risks from refinancing maturing debt also prompted the review for downgrade, Moody's said.
The New York Times said it is looking for ways to reduce its debt, but said it is a difficult time to make asset sales.
The cost to insure the company's debt with credit default swaps rose to 477.50 basis points on Thursday, or $477,500 per year for five years to insure $10 million in debt, from 460 basis points on Wednesday, according to Markit Intraday. (Reporting by Karen Brettell; Editing by Dan Grebler)

READ AN ALTERNATIVE IHT DAILY NARRATIVE AT
A PLACE IN THE AUVERGNE

LOOKING FOR A CHRISTMAS GIFT TO BUY?

"Books about cosmopolitan urbanites discovering the joys of country life are two a penny, but this one is worth a second glance. Walthew's vivid description of the moral stress induced by his job as a high-flying executive with the International Herald Tribune newspaper is worth the cover price alone…. Highly recommended." The Oxford Times

International Herald Tribune
IHT
New York Times
The NYT Company

Vacation /Business Trip Furnished Rental Apartment in Paris

The New York Times Company Q3 2008 Earnings Call Transcript Q&A session

Question-and-Answer Session

David Clark - Deutsche Bank Securities
What sort of impact on circulation volume have you seen from your home delivery and single copy price increases at The Times over the summer? Second, what is the current guide count at www.about.com and is the plan still to scale up to 900 guides by next year or has that been scaled back in light of the economic environment?
Janet L. Robinson
I’ll have Scott give you the information on circulation and Martin will give you the overview in regard to the guide network.
Scott Heekin-Canedy
As with our price increases in recent years, we’ve seen better-than-expected volume drops as a result of the price increase. So we’re trending better than expected in circulation levels. The yield is significant and we expect to annually generate $16 million to $18 million of revenue from these increases.
Martin A. Nisenholtz
The current guide number is 770 and we are trending toward the 900 that you referenced for next year.
Operator
Our next question comes from Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company.
Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company
SG&A was down it looks like about $30 million from last year. Would that be a run rate going forward in terms of the year-to-year decline given the cost reduction actions?
James M. Follo
We continue to execute well as I said on the $230 million target and we have been really building the cost savings as we go, and the third quarter number was a number which far surpassed any other number. Specifically on the G&A line, I can’t give specific guidance on that but we certainly expect that the cash cost savings numbers will continue to show the sort of results that we saw in the third quarter. Specifically on that line, we certainly expect that line to come down in meaningful numbers going forward. I can’t give that precise number however.
Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company
Joint venture income looked pretty good and with the newsprint environment, would the fourth quarter joint venture income be significantly above year ago? Well, last year was a loss. Would it be in the vicinity of the second and third quarter levels?
James M. Follo
We gave the full year guidance in the press release. The joint venture line has a seasonal aspect to it particularly as it relates to -
Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company
Oh right.
Operator
Our next question comes from Peter Appert - Goldman Sachs.
Peter Appert - Goldman Sachs
On the cash flow front Jim, I’m wondering if the $80 million capital spending plan for ’09, should we think about that as the sustainable number going forward? Related to the cash flow also for Janet, I’m wondering how seriously you’ll consider asset sales as you review the efforts to cut debt? And one other unrelated item, on the newsprint front there’s some talk in the market that maybe the pricing pressure’s easing a little bit during the fourth quarter. What are you guys seeing?
James M. Follo
Let me deal with the cap ex number first. The $80 million number actually includes two items which we view as somewhat non-recurring and both of them are meaningful parts of that $80 million. We still have as we mentioned a plant consolidation in Boston. That will contribute meaningfully to that number. We are still in the final stages of our SAP implementation which will be complete in mid-2009. Ex those two numbers, I think that number actually comes down somewhere in the $20 million to $30 million range now. I wouldn’t call a $50 million number a sustainable long-term number but we don’t see the $80 million as something as you look out next year as a good target.
On the newsprint side there’s clearly a potential leveling out. As we go into the fourth quarter there are several factors that are helping to mitigate some what we hope further increases. We do see the price increases that were announced as largely sticking. That has been a $20 per month increase due at the year. That being said, I think we do view the prices [inaudible (2) 06:20.2] to 2009 as flattish [inaudible] we look at the Canadian dollar and some of the raw material and energy prices both favorably impacting of course the consumption across the board also and compacting it. But we do think longer time really 2009 is more of a flattish type of environment.
Janet L. Robinson
On the sale of assets, divestitures, as you know we don’t comment on that but we have said often that we constantly review our portfolio and will continue to going forward.
I think the focus right now is making sure that these properties are running as efficiently as possible. We’re making sure that the cost base of all of them are being brought down quite dramatically as evidenced by what we’ve done at The Times in the case of the C&S distribution arm closing, the consolidation at Edison, and certainly the closing of [Bell Ricker] in Boston. We’re going to continue to do those things to make sure that all of these properties are run as efficiently as they possibly can be.
Peter Appert - Goldman Sachs
Is there a specific debt level or leverage ratio that you folks might like to be at by the end of ’09 let’s say?
James M. Follo
We don’t have a specific target other than we are certainly mindful of providing some balance sheet flexibility through lower debt levels but I don’t have a specific target. It’s really just a function of the environment and our view of the business on operations.
Operator
Our next question comes from Alexia Quadrani - J.P. Morgan.
Alexia Quadrani - J.P. Morgan
Janet, when you mentioned the constant reviewing of your portfolio, do you think there actually are buyers of newspaper assets right now currently in the market place? My second question is, on the Internet side of the business where you talk about the weakness in display advertising going forward, is it on any specific one property or is it across the board there?
Janet L. Robinson
I’ll have Martin answer the Internet advertising.
In regard to the outlook I guess in regard to potential buyers for newspaper properties, I think this is a difficult time for our industry. It’s clear that we are facing secular and cyclical headwinds. But I think from a standpoint of the brands that are represented by newspapers nationally, it’s clear that these are still very strong brands in their communities and beyond.
In light of that many newspapers of course are not just positioning themselves as newspaper companies; they are positioning themselves as news media sources that are extending their content over a variety of platforms. I think from a standpoint of timing right now, it is a very difficult time for asset sales but I think that companies overall are doing exactly what they should; focusing on the productivity of those assets, expanding the base across platforms to make them very profitable business that contribute to the bottom line.
Martin A. Nisenholtz
Regarding the Internet revenue streams, it really isn’t equal across the properties. The CPC and lead gen businesses which are really more in the About area remain quite robust; very strong. Display at the lower end of the business is weaker. At the higher end it’s holding fairly firm. Of course classifieds which have been weak all year in help wanted continue to be weak. As we look out we don’t see a change in that. So it isn’t really a uniform story at all across the four segments.
Operator
Our next question comes from Katrina Fallon - Citigroup.
Katrina Fallon - Citigroup
In terms of the dividend discussion with the Board, what is the main focus there? Is that maybe reducing the dividend yield, working on cash flow or is there something else that’s driving that? Secondly, on the digital aspect can you give some detail on CPM for the higher end ads or the front page of the www.nyt.com and maybe some other color on a range of CPM?
James M. Follo
On the dividend front it’s a fairly dynamic discussion. This is a discussion that takes place at every board meeting and it’s just a function of how we want to allocate capital, what we see in the future as far as investment opportunities, and making sure that we have sufficient balance sheet capacity and flexibility in order to be able to invest and grow the business. That’s the way that we think about it.
Martin A. Nisenholtz
On the CPMs front, CPMs at www.nytimes.com have been up in the mid-single digits year-to-date. That doesn’t include ad network CPMs which have also been up. I don’t have a specific number on that but they have climbed year-to-date as well.
Operator
Our next question comes from John Janedis - Wachovia Securities.
John Janedis - Wachovia Securities
Janet, you talked about visibility being limited on the advertising side, but can you talk about maybe the buying patterns within some categories? How much closer to run date are you seeing commitments come in from department stores or other categories compared to a quarter or two ago?
Janet L. Robinson
I think that there is more of a trending towards just-in-time placement across all of our properties; I think retail most of all primarily because of the nature of their business. That said though, there is quite a bit of business that is already on contract not only at The Times but at The Globe for example as well and that’s in a number of categories. I think from a standpoint of the economic situation that exists right now you’re seeing more just-in-time placement as opposed to longer flights and flights that are predetermined months in advance.
John Janedis - Wachovia Securities
On the contract side, given the economy, are you seeing instances where clients are trying to pull back on the contract or pull back on the commitment?
Janet L. Robinson
I think it’s really too early to tell. I think that certainly there will always be discussions about contractual obligations but the way contracts are put together, really they are incentivized to run a certain amount of advertising during the course of the year. So from a standpoint of their cost base, I think there are distinct advantages to sticking to the contractual agreements that they have agreed to, and I think in most cases people are going to be focusing on those advantages going forward.
John Janedis - Wachovia Securities
If I could just ask Martin a question, on your comment about the high end versus the lower end, can you give us an idea of maybe how much of the inventory is what you classify as higher end?
Martin A. Nisenholtz
My reference was really to higher end being at The Times’ website. In general that inventory is viewed as premium inventory as opposed for example to the About inventory. The question was, are all of the properties behaving the same and they’re not.
But with respect to your question about kind of parsing that a little bit, I would say that all of the inventory at www.nytimes.com is viewed because of the brand as higher end inventory or as premium inventory. We hold rates so we won’t sell inventory just to discount it but there’s no question, and we’ve said this over the past several years, that vertically oriented or more contextually oriented inventory is worth a lot more than general news inventory.
So in some ways you can cut the word premium by, is it premium as a result of its brand affiliation or is it premium as a result of its contextual affiliation. Those are sort of elastic. Those are two different dimensions to the question. The inventory that will tend to go more toward the remnant side at www.nytimes.com is the general news inventory.
John Janedis - Wachovia Securities
So a category like luxury and financials, you would say they’re hanging in there or does that mean they’re even -
Martin A. Nisenholtz
Very much so. In fact as I said, on the CPM side we’ve seen mid-single-digit increases this year and absolutely hanging in there for sure. Not just those two categories but certainly any categories that attract a commercial intent on the part of the consumer or that target a particular type of demographic. We’ve talked about executive decision makers in the past and that’s a particularly important and sizable segment for us.
John Janedis - Wachovia Securities
Jim, on the model, are the 3Q numbers for both corporate and D&A for About good run rates for the fourth quarter?
James M. Follo
I think that those should be good run rates.
Operator
Our next question comes from Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company.
Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company
Regarding the advertising outlook that you talk about October, do you think given sort of the credit crisis and the credit crunch and people watching their cash; you mentioned just-in-time advertising which has been my personal belief anyway; advertisers might have been unduly cautious and if the credit markets loosen up and they believe the money’s in the bank, they might put some money back into the ad budgets or is that wishful thinking?
Scott Heekin-Canedy
Advertisers are definitely taking a day-by-day wait-and-see approach to see where the markets are going, how the economy is going to respond, and they’re trying to spend their ad dollars very judiciously. You’ve seen some nice increases particularly from financial services in the past month as institutions have tried to take advantage of this market place as well as reinforce their reputations.
Janet L. Robinson
We saw a strong climb in financial advertising both at The Times and at The Globe in regard to the advertising that addressed the crisis certainly with banks and financial institutions. So it’s clear when there is a deliberate reason for them to get their message out, they use these vehicles to do so; the immediacy of the message and the full explanation of the message in those kinds of ads that are appearing in those papers.
Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company
You don’t think there’s been sort of a pressure on budgets because of cash that sort of exaggerated the weakness?
Janet L. Robinson
I think they are being extremely cautious in regard to how they’re spending their money. I don’t think the dollars are totally gone but I think that they’re just being very judicious in regard to how they’re spending. I also think in regard to the retail sector it will be a wait-and-see in regard to how the November and December timeframe performs for them because in many cases when things get more difficult for retailers, they do advertise more rather than less.
Scott Heekin-Canedy
In a similar vein, advertisers are telling us that they’re trying to wait as late in the year as possible at their ad budgets for 2009 to wait and see where the economy’s going to be going and how consumers are going to behave.
Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company
Have you thought about an ad rate structure for ’09?
Janet L. Robinson
We haven’t decided specifically in regard to those structures as of yet. I think that there will be further evaluation. I think we will be very conservative in regard to any rate increases that we’re looking at for 2009 particularly because of the economic situation.
Operator
Our next question comes from Craig Huber - Barclays Capital.
Craig Huber - Barclays Capital
About the pension, just looking at your 10K I think it was underfunded last year by $275 million and I think you have about $1.5 billion of assets. Just given here the S&P 500 is down 35% to 40% this year; I guess most bond funds are down 5% to 10%, it’s probably not unreasonable for your pension assets to probably be down a good 20%. That would probably put your underfunded status up or down $600 million give or take. I’m not a pension expert by any stretch, but if you have roughly seven years you have to get that back to break even, does that mean investors should expect a large outflow of cash going into your pension plan of $80 million give or take?
James M. Follo
I think the number you are referring to regarding the funded status was all both funded and unfunded plans. The qualified plan which is the ERISA plan was fully funded as of the last balance sheet date. It’s also true however with the credit markets and the equity markets being what they are, we’ve obviously had some asset losses through the first nine months of the year. We don’t think that’s a big material number. It’s hard to quantify. It’s a fairly dynamic number and really hard to predict now.
Craig Huber - Barclays Capital
Do you have any idea how much potentially cash you’ll have to put into your pension plan?
James M. Follo
In 2009 we think it will have no impact as you have to think of much further out. A lot can happen between now and then before you have to commit, but we don’t think this thing is a $100 million number. It certainly puts more pressure but again in 2090 it will result in no additional contributions to the qualified plans.
Craig Huber - Barclays Capital
Back on the dividend discussion, are you guys contemplating at all taking the dividend to zero or potentially just cutting it in half like McClatchy did here recently?
James M. Follo
That’s something that we’ll have full deliberations as we always do with the Board. That’s not something we can comment on.
Craig Huber - Barclays Capital
On your comments in the digital “slowing,” could you just quantify a little bit better what you’re seeing at www.about.com so far this month? Is the growth rate slowing there or what?
Martin A. Nisenholtz
The growth rate on revenue has slowed at About this month. As I said before it’s a result of the display side of the business, the non-premium display side of the business. We are continuing to see very robust growth in CPC and lead generation but the non-premium display inventory is under pressure.
Operator
Our next question comes from Scott Davis - J.P. Morgan.
Scott Davis - J.P. Morgan
I’m looking at About and I was curious about the other side of the equation which is the cost side. I was wondering if Martin could give maybe a minute of color on what you’re doing there because costs for my numbers excluding D&A grew 5% or 65 which is vastly better than the 30% to 40% to 50% growth that you had had. Are we just anniversarying the sales growth that you put in place or is something else happening?
Martin A. Nisenholtz
Yes. In part that is what we’re doing. As I think you know if you’ve followed this story to date, we’ve invested a significant amount of money in the sales force rebuild and we’re committed to that. We think it’s an important part of the business and we think that we need to have at About a highly competent and sizable sales force given the size of the business. That was the principal investment that we made.
James M. Follo
It’ll also be anniversaried against the consumer search acquisition. That acquisition was done I believe in May 2007. So this is the first quarter in which we anniversaried against a full quarter’s worth of expense.
Scott Davis - J.P. Morgan
So the cost growth that we saw this quarter you think is representative going forward?
James M. Follo
I think in general terms that’s right.
Scott Davis - J.P. Morgan
It seems like a small issue but sadly About’s profitability is becoming a fairly big piece of the company so it feels like it’s an important one.
James M. Follo
I would add just one other thing. It doesn’t totally go to the growth but embedded in there as we continue to invest small but meaningful amounts in About China as well. That we see continuing for the foreseeable future.
Operator
There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ms. Catherine Mathis.
Catherine J. Mathis
Thank you all for joining us today and if you have any additional questions, please give us a call. Thanks so much.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/101576-the-new-york-times-company-q3-2008-earnings-call-transcript?page=-1

READ AN ALTERNATIVE IHT DAILY NARRATIVE AT
A PLACE IN THE AUVERGNE
International Herald Tribune
IHT
New York Times
The NYT Company

Vacation /Business Trip Furnished Rental Apartment in Paris

NYT Company Stock Price

The markets seem to agree with those Q3 results - in line with analysts' expectations.

But I think they are factoring in a sharp drop in the dividend ($25 million alone to family members with $1.2 billion of debt, so the question is, will the family stand firm on this and not do a Bancroft when someone comes tapping on the door).



Name
Last price
1-day$ change
1-day% change
30-day% change
Shares
Totalvalue

New York Times Company NYT: NYSE
$10.70
$0.02
+0.19%
–25.90%

News Corporation NWS.A: NYSE
$9.00
$0.54
+6.38%
–30.02%

Pearson PLC. PSO: NYSE
$9.67
$0.32
+3.42%
–11.53%

READ AN ALTERNATIVE IHT DAILY NARRATIVE AT
A PLACE IN THE AUVERGNE

International Herald Tribune
IHT
New York Times
The NYT Company

Vacation /Business Trip Furnished Rental Apartment in Paris

But About.com revenues rise 16% (or shoutld that be only?)

I think my PERSONAL CONSUMER views about About.com are know - so know emails please - but the NYT's own media correspondent RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA should know better to write about increases in about.com revenues (a meagre 16.1 percent) as if this was something to write home about. From what base Richard and how fast do they need to grow to prop up that declining print revenue? And how much of that growth came from acquisitions?

There's no BUT here Richard, only an ONLY about About.com revenue.




October 24, 2008
New York Times Co. Posts Lower Profit
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
The New York Times Company reported a 51.4 percent decline in third-quarter profit on Thursday and swung to a loss on continuing operations as deeper-than-expected expense cuts could not keep pace with declining revenue.
The company said it would consider cutting its dividend and planned to write down the value of assets in its New England Media Group, which includes The Boston Globe, by as much as $150 million.
“Our board of directors plans to review our dividend policy before the end of this year to determine what is most prudent in light of the overall market conditions,” the company’s chief executive, Janet Robinson, said in a statement.

Online revenue rose just 2.5 percent for the company’s newspapers, which include The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The International Herald Tribune and 17 smaller papers. But the company’s other online businesses, including About.com, increased revenue by 16.1 percent, despite the economic downturn.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/business/media/24times.html?ref=business

READ AN ALTERNATIVE IHT DAILY NARRATIVE AT
A PLACE IN THE AUVERGNE

International Herald Tribune
IHT
New York Times
The NYT Company

Vacation /Business Trip Furnished Rental Apartment in Paris

Dividend, debt and junk rating - just a quick look back.

NYT Co. are talking of cutting their 2008 dividend which, with decreasing revenues would be a pretty good idea, if it wants to continue to service that $1.2 billion of debt and not obtain a junk status.

The Q3 results announcement does have JR talking of conversations with lenders and 'evaluating future financing arrangements', so something is a foot, and this story from back in August reminds of us why.

AP
New York Times shares plunge on ratings concerns
Tuesday August 12, 6:37 pm ET
NY Times shares fall after report says publisher could preserve rating by cutting dividend
NEW YORK (AP) -- New York Times Co. shares slumped Tuesday after an analyst suggested in a media report that the company may need to cut its dividend to avoid a "junk" credit rating.
The newspaper publisher's stock dropped 85 cents, or 6 percent, to $13.24 Tuesday. In the past year it has ranged from $12.08 to $22.95.
Last year, the company raised its quarterly dividend 31 percent to 23 cents, which costs it more than $100 million a year in payments to shareholders.
New York Times Co. has seen revenue contract in recent quarters, which crimps cash available for operations and payments. That led Moody's Investors Service to say it may cut the company's credit ratings if operating metrics do not approve.
Earlier Tuesday, Bloomberg quoted a credit analyst with Moody's Investors Service saying the company may need to preserve cash -- potentially by lowering the dividend -- to avoid having its credit rating slashed.
Ratings indicate a company's ability to repay debt and are used by lenders to set the terms of borrowing. Lower ratings mean more expensive credit for a company.
Two weeks ago, Moody's changed the company's rating outlook to "Negative" from "Stable" on concerns about slipping advertising sales. Moody's said the lower ratings outlook reflects worries that the Gray Lady's ad revenue could slip further.
"The New York Times' first-half 2008 operating performance is in the range Moody's anticipated, but there is increasing risk that earnings in the second half of 2008 and in 2009 could fall below prior expectations," Moody's said.
The ratings agency held its senior unsecured Prime-3 commercial paper ratings for the company steady at "Baa3," the lowest investment-grade rating.
The New York Times Co. did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080812/new_york_times_mover.html?.v=1

New York Observer on NYT Q3 Results

Sinking feeling



Times Company Stock Hits 52-Week Low
by John Koblin October 23, 2008

On a morning where The New York Times Company's stock hit its 52-week low at $10.39, Times Company C.E.O. Janet Robinson used the most palatable phrase she could find—"a continuing softness"—to describe the bleak third quarter results to investors today.
In all, the Times Company's net income dropped 51 percent this quarter versus 3Q 2007, revenues were down 8.9 percent, advertisng revenue down 14 percent.
Ms. Robinson said that luxury advertising was one of the things that saved the advertising numbers from being worse (T magazine, thank you very much); in total it made up a total of 13 percent of total advertising revenue.
Lots of jobs have been cut this year for the Times Company—and more are on the way—and up to this point NYT Co. has paid out $56.9 million in severance packages.
Times execs also announced that they are considering cutting the company's dividend, one of the last reliable places for income for Sulzberger-Ochs clan, and for increasingly desperate shareholders. Last year they increased the dividend more than 30 percent; it's also what reserved a $25.1 million pool of cash for the family a year.
Moody's said that if they don't cut the dividend, the Times is perilously close to getting a Junk bond status, which won't be good for anyone.

READ AN ALTERNATIVE IHT DAILY NARRATIVE AT
A PLACE IN THE AUVERGNE

International Herald Tribune
IHT
New York Times
The NYT Company

Vacation /Business Trip Furnished Rental Apartment in Paris