New York Times suspends dividend; Sunday paper cost higher than share price

Posted Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 2:23 pm

Sad, sad news from NYC, as the New York Times has announced that they're suspending their dividend in order to save cash (link). In November, they reduced the dividend from 23 cents per share to 6 cents per share, but now their shareholders won't get anything for the foreseeable future.

Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. - aka Pinch - said the following in a voluntary statement:

"Today's decision provides the company with additional financial flexibility given the current economic environment and the uncertain business outlook... We expect the suspension of the dividend, coupled with our other actions, will help us decrease debt and improve the liquidity of the company, a difficult but prudent measure in this operating environment."

NYT closed around $3.50. Reports indicate that the newsstand price for a Sunday NYT is $4.00.

Tags: 
new york times

Comments

petty bourgeois (not verified)

Thu, 02/19/2009 - 20:15

The propagandizing grey lady is taking her final breath. Pray for her imminent death comrades.

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Thu, 02/19/2009 - 21:03

Good is that ok petty?

eh (not verified)

Fri, 02/20/2009 - 01:47

Slim has lots more where that came from.

Smitty (not verified)

Fri, 02/20/2009 - 19:26

translation: we'll still be printing the best propaganda money can buy even if we screw the sucker common shareholders.

llamajockey (not verified)

Fri, 02/20/2009 - 21:48

Gannett GCI is in an even worse boat. It closed at $3.72. Gannett is carrying far more debt and is massively over extended. Also the Gannett papers are simply horrible with virtually no redeeming value. The NYT is still a premium media brand. Many very talented people from across the political spectrum would love to write for the NYT. If Pinch Sulzberger was sh*t canned tomorrow, it is remotely possible for a capable change in leadership to turn the NYT around overnight. Yeah all the silly lefty Howard Zinn/Noam Chomsky admiring bong smoking idiots along with elitist fools like Thomas Friedman would have to be shown the door. My concern would be that having brought Carlos Slim on board reform is going to be even tougher if not impossible. Still I bet Gannett goes belly up before the NYT.

Carlos (not verified)

Fri, 02/20/2009 - 22:49

And, sadly, they still haven't figured out why their readership is down. In addition to that stupidity, they're still trying to sell that sorry excuse for birdcage droppings to flyover country. Because those sales are even worse in the toilet they figure the folks there are dumber than the ones in NYC that, even as liberal as they are, can't stand where the NYT has tried to take them.