Media

• More bad news for the big newspaper publishers this week, as The New York Times and Tribune, Inc look for ways to stay afloat.  Their businesses are being hit hard by diminishing advertising sales as well as competing online papers and professional blogs.
• The Tribune owns eight major daily newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun, plus a string of local TV stations. Many papers will need to fold in coming months, but for both the NYT and Tribune, some internal cash infusions are possible.
• The NYT is looking to borrow against its new Manhattan headquarters. It has hired a real estate firm to raise up to $225 million using the value of the building as collateral. The company owns 58% of the headquarters which is valued at somewhere between $900 million and $1 billion. Pulling money out of commercial real-estate is a good option for property owners looking for a tax free way to raise capital if they are to throw the money back into another investment.
• The Tribune too has their share of investments that it can salvage some money. A sale of its Chicago Cubs baseball team is under way, which will help the company in it’s effort to pay soon to be owed debts.
• Both the NYT and Tribune are under more heat than usual as they both have loans in the hundreds of millions that need to be paid back in 2009. The NYT needs to ante up $400 million by May in debts (ATD) and Tribune owes $512 million come June. Unofrtunatelly selling their paper assets are most likely not possible as the buyers market for old media is getting thin. The amount of money they are both able to pull from their other assets are limited and neither business will be able to withstand the ever-growing transition to new media outlets.

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