NYT reportedly sells off regional partners

Word out of the Tuscaloosa News is that everyone has been retained for now, but each paper will be individually evaluated after the sale goes through on Jan. 6.

The date is a little problematic for those covering the national championship in New Orleans because that's also when all of their corporate credit cards will stop working.

 

alan, that's some pretty specific information. Where are you getting it?

 

Bump . . .

Wondering if there is a follow-up to what Alan said about papers being evaluated again after the sale goes through. Has anyone else heard that? I haven't seen any info like that from friends who have been affected.

 

The bad news will come after the sale is finalized. I'm guessing here, but a business doesn't make drastic changes until sale is official.

 

Halifax paid 165M or so for the papers. I don't think Halifax has been around long enough or has many other successful business that allow them to pay cash. So I think they borrowed the money. And I would bet my house and my care that Halifax promised the banks they would cut costs.

Of course my house has negative equity and my car is 15 years old so my willingness to wager is more reflective of the value of my assets than my expertise.

 

Halifax is owned by Stephens Capital, which has assets of $440M and more than $100M in equity, so they were able to put down a decent down payment if they chose. I don't think they're leveraged nearly as badly as Tribune was or as CNHI currently is.

Regarding layoffs, everyone should be safe until early April. The NYT's SEC filing says that Halifax agreed not to make staffing reductions until 90 days after the sale closes. After that, look out.

 

I just love all this speculation.

 

You dream about it, don't you ...

 

How'd you know?

 

Sarasota avoided any job cuts, but employees are required to sign the ridiculous noncompete. Additionally, they lost up to seven days of vacation time and five sick days, though there were no pay cuts.

 

What ridiculous non-compete?

 

The one that says that you can't work for any media entity that competes in any way with any entity owned by Halifax for two years after leaving a Halifax paper.

My guess is that it would probably apply to most newspapers in Florida at this point. It's probably also unenforceable, but good luck finding a company that would take the risk. And Halifax's predecessor company, so to speak, did make a legal challenge at least once (though it was over ad reps, not news folks).