The New York Times Company said on Monday it was in advanced talks to sell 16 regional newspapers, another indication the company was divesting itself of assets to concentrate on its core newspaper business.
Halifax Media Holdings of Daytona Beach, Fla., is currently negotiating the purchase of the Times Company’s Regional Media Group, a division that includes newspapers across the country like The Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida; The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif.; The Star-News in Wilmington, N.C.; The Gainesville Sun, also in Florida; and The Tuscaloosa News in Alabama.
Combined, the papers have a Monday-through-Friday circulation of 433,251 and 1,755 full-time employees. Analysts estimated that the sale of the regional papers would be completed later this week and priced at around $145 million. Robert H. Christie, a spokesman for the Times Company, declined to comment.
As print advertising revenue continues to decline, the Times Company has sold assets to focus on its anchor newspapers, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The International Herald Tribune. In July, the Times Company sold more than half of its stake in the Fenway Sports Group, the owner of the Boston Red Sox, for $117 million.
As optimism for the new digital subscription service at The New York Times newspaper has grown, the company’s regional publications have lagged, the steady decline driven by a drop-off in classified advertising and the migration of readers to the Web. In 2010, the Regional Media Group accounted for 11 percent of the company’s $2.4 billion in revenue.
From 2008 to 2009, advertising revenue at the Regional Media Group fell 30.2 percent, to $193 million, and declined 8.2 percent in 2010 to $177 million, according to the Times Company’s 2010 annual report. Classified ads make up 28 percent of the advertisements at the regional newspapers.
“This gets rid of another headache for The Times,” said Edward J. Atorino, a media analyst at the Benchmark Company.
Executives with the Times Company said they had been in talks for months with Halifax, which owns The Daytona-Beach News Journal and four other local news organizations in Florida and across the South. Even though the deal has not been completed, the Halifax Web site listed all of the Times Company’s regional papers as its own on Monday morning, tipping off the media blogger Jim Romenesko. Halifax could not be reached for comment.
The pending sale comes just days after Janet L. Robinson, the Times Company’s chief executive since 2004, announced she would depart at the end of the month after a meeting with the company chairman, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., who raised the issue of new leadership, according to people with knowledge of the meeting who declined to be identified discussing confidential business.
As the company homes in on making its NYTimes.com Web site a long-term profit generator, analysts widely expect Ms. Robinson’s replacement to have a strong technology or digital media background.
“The Times is moving even more quickly to double down on its investment in its flagship newspaper, which is essentially its future, and that future is digital,” said Ken Doctor, a media and publishing analyst at Outsell Inc.
If the right buyer were to emerge, The Boston Globe could be the next asset sold, analysts said. “You need to remove the distraction properties that aren’t a part of that future, which is clearly the regional group and could be The Globe,” Mr. Doctor said. Mr. Christie had no comment.
The Times Company went on a regional-newspaper buying spree in the 1970s and 1980s long before the dawn of the Web or classified sites like Craigslist.com threatened the business model.
“The Times has one major product — The New York Times — so if you’re in a smaller market you don’t necessarily have the management focused on you,” said Ava Seave, a principal of the consulting firm Quantum Media.
Shares in the Times Company declined 2.3 percent, or 17 cents, to close Monday at $7.19.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 19, 2011
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of the blogger Jim Romenesko as Romanesko.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=be06555e936d96c29e83475edbff9d63