WORCESTER – The New York Times Co. will make a decision by early fall on whether to sell The Boston Globe and its other New England newspaper, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, the company’s president and CEO told employees at the Worcester paper last week.
In August, the Times Co. confirmed that it has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to work on selling the company’s New England Media Group, which includes the two newspapers and the Web site Boston.com.
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Times Co. chief Janet L. Robinson said a decision about a sale is likely to be made within the next few months. She also said the company is “not in a situation where we are absolutely being forced to sell” the division and its publications.
Separately, The New York Times reported last week that Robinson told Globe employees in a meeting, which was closed to outside journalists, that the company still intends to sell the newspaper.
The Globe’s future has been uncertain since the Times Co. threatened to close it last spring, after disclosing that the paper was on track to lose $85 million by the end of 2009. The paper’s employees have since agreed to deep wage and benefit cuts in an effort to stem the tide of red ink.
Robinson said the New England Media Group is “in better financial shape than it was at the beginning of the year,” the Telegram & Gazette reported.
The Boston Globe has reported that two bidders have emerged: Platinum Equity LLC, a California investment firm, and a group of Boston businessmen that includes Stephen Taylor, whose family sold The Globe to the Times Co. in 1993 for $1.1 billion. The company bought the Telegram & Gazette in 2000 for $296 million.
Both have submitted bids of roughly $94 million, which includes liabilities totaling $59 million, according to The Globe.
Bruce Gaultney, the Telegram & Gazette’s publisher, also told employees there that more of them are likely to be laid off.
