NYT defers bid deadline for The Boston Globe

The New York Times Company has put off the 8 July deadline it had set for submission of preliminary bids for its troubled The Boston Globe. The move comes in response to requests for more time from potential suitors. According to sources the deadline may now be set beyond 20 July.

While no fresh deadline has been set for bids, according to The Boston Globe, unknown sources from Goldman Sachs, the investment bank managing the sale, have told interested parties that they would be given more time.

According to The Globe, three local businessmen have evinced interest to bid – Stephen Pagliuca, co-owner of the Boston Celtics and managing director of private equity firm Bain Capital; Jack Connors, the chairman of Partners Health Care; and Stephen Taylor, a former Globe executive and member of the family from which The New York Times Co bough The Boston Globa for more than $1 billion in 16 years ago.

Analysts say potential bidders may be waiting for the outcome of a vote on 20 July by the journalists' union, the Boston Newspaper Guild. The vote would decide a number of issues including wage and benefit cuts of $10 million. It would also ratify proposals to freeze pension contributions and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees for nearly 200 veteran employees.

Goldman Sachs had in a letter it sent last month said that potential bidders would need to assume liability to the extent of $59 million in pension liability for The Globe and sister title, the Worcester Telegram and Gazzette.

The Globe reported that the Times Co has agreed to keep more than $200 million in pension liabilities in its own books, in the interest of increasing the prospects for the sale of the Globe.

In the six months through March, The Globe lost 14 per cent of its average weekday circulation from the earlier year as compared with a 7.1 per cent drop across the industry, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations' figures.

Times Co said its New England Media Group, which includes The Globe and Worcester Telegram & Gazette, saw revenue fall 21 per cent in the first quarter, compared with a 19 per cent decline across the company.