OT: New York Times financial problems?

Michael Hirschorn speculates about whether the New York Times could be sold:

…what if The New York Times goes out of business—like, this May?

It’s certainly plausible. Earnings reports released by the New York Times Company in October indicate that drastic measures will have to be taken over the next five months or the paper will default on some $400million in debt. With more than $1billion in debt already on the books, only $46million in cash reserves as of October, and no clear way to tap into the capital markets (the company’s debt was recently reduced to junk status), the paper’s future doesn’t look good.

“As part of our analysis of our uses of cash, we are evaluating future financing arrangements,” the Times Company announced blandly in October, referring to the crunch it will face in May. “Based on the conversations we have had with lenders, we expect that we will be able to manage our debt and credit obligations as they mature.” This prompted Henry Blodget, whose Web site, Silicon Alley Insider, has offered the smartest ongoing analysis of the company’s travails, to write: “‘We expect that we will be able to manage’? Translation: There’s a possibility that we won’t be able to manage.”

The paper’s credit crisis comes against a backdrop of ongoing and accelerating drops in circulation, massive cutbacks in advertising revenue, and the worst economic climate in almost 80 years. As of December, its stock had fallen so far that the entire company could theoretically be had for about $1 billion. The former Times executive editor Abe Rosenthal often said he couldn’t imagine a world without The Times. Perhaps we should start.

What would be the implications on ebooks & publishing if New York Times were to change radically (for the worse)?  My thoughts:

1. Less coverage of New York publishing trends.  The Times publishes some outstanding pieces on literature and publishing, but they tend to revolve around the same publishers and give blurbs from the usual suspects. New York now ranks only 3rd in population among the States, but you would never know it judging from the tendency of national media to focus on major media markets.
2. More anarchy  on the bestseller lists. The Times, like Time Magazine or CNN tends to be a tastemaker. A tastemaker (as I define it) is a media source that by virtue of its size and  has a disproportionate influence on people’s opinions. Every year Time Magazine struts out one or two tastemaker issues (“100 Hot Trends in Science” “40 Under 40 to watch” “20 Most Religious People of the Decade” “100 Best Movies of the Century”) as does People Magazine (“Sexiest Men of the Year”). NYT’s “Best Books of 2008” kinds of lists are a good reference point for what’s been published, but they also miss a lot. NYT has totally missed out on  ebook titles in part because it’s incapable of doing that. An ebook release by SGWAW (Some Guy with a Website) just isn’t newsworthy. (On the other hand, a recent celebrity memoir –especially one in politics—will often garner at least a condescending  mention in NYT). 
3. Smaller stables of writers.  Once upon a time, journalists yearned for the cachet of a major city daily like NYT, but nowadays it just is too hard to make and maintain those relationships. Is it worth the trouble?
4. Fewer general interest publications/more specialized publications. If our ebook reading devices  allow us to download our favorite feeds, why on earth do we need daily newspapers? After you’ve found a reliable blogger in the zones  of national politics, local politics, literature, world affairs, the arts, science and health, why do you need to visit a national site that puts it all together when the A la Carte menu is more appetizing? By the way, BoingBoing, in my opinion, started out as a specialized publication for geeks only (a BOGWAW, a bunch of geeks with a website), but over time it has tried to reach a more general audience, for better or worse. Does BoingBoing wish to compete against the major dailies?
5. More emphasis on individual critics, less emphasis on  company name. Ok, aside from Michiko Kakutani, how many book reviewers for NYT do you recognize by name? Now, how many litbloggers do you know by name?  (For me, dozens).  
6. Although I’m officially neutral about this trend, New York Times has embraced the blogging phenomena by hiring old fogies like Paul Krugman, Stanley Fish and Nicholas Kristof to start blogging. This is probably a good thing (because all of these people have interesting things to say), but one gets the impression that blogging is imposed upon them rather than something they would do naturally.

Update: Well apparently Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has lent NYT a cool $250 million. Michiko, your job is safe (for now).