John Henry Buys Boston Globe

Red Sox principal owner John Henry has reached an agreement to purchase the Boston Globe for $70 million.

I read about the transaction in three articles this morning. First one via the Globe, the second was via the NY Times, and the last was via Breitbart. What was interesting was the Globe article did not mention the pension liabilities at all (an important nugget for the business section to overlook completely don't you think), the Times just said that John Henry was not assuming the "Globe's pension liabilities", and then Breitbart said that the pension liabilities are estimated at over $100 million. Adding in those pension liabilities really puts a different spin on the real net for the NY Times in the deal - doesn't it?

What maybe bugged me the most was the fact that the Worcester Telegram and Gazette was lumped into the deal like it was an after thought. The Telegram and Gazette was the paper I grew up with. I have to think if the NY Times Company never touched the T and G that it would have been worth more than $70 million by itself today.

The Red Sox the Buy the Boston Globe?

The Boston Herald today reported a rumor that principal Red Sox owner John Henry has mad overtures to purchase back the 17% of the Red Sox as well as the struggling Boston Globe from the New York Time Co.

I have no doubt that John Henry has probably indicated his willingness to buy-back the shares in the Red Sox. It makes sense that the Red Sox would want to get the 17% of the club the NYT owns. The valuation of the Red Sox keeps going up. The question is why would the Red Sox want the Boston Globe? Why would they want to do a reverse Tribune / Chicago Cubs situation?

The answer is - they probably don't want to buy the Boston Globe but that may be part of the cost of doing business to get that 17% back. If that was the case - then I wouldn't be surprised if the Worcester Telegram was also made part of the package since that central Mass paper is also owned by the NYT Co.

The smart money says that this never happens. The Red Sox have no need to take on distressed properties. They can let the New York Times continue to struggle and maybe get good terms for that 17% from the bankruptcy judge when the New York Times eventually has to sleep in the bed that they have been making.

A New Low for Local Sports Coverage

Yesterday I read an article in my local paper - The Worcester Telegram and Gazette. It was a story about how more than a dozen players for the Nashua Pride (Can-Am League) got food poisoning from eating food at Holman Stadium. The story made me think of two things.

First, the food poisoning reminded me of a minor subplot from the Mario Puzo book The Last Don. In the book a gambler had a plan to fix the Super Bowl by poisoning the food brought into the locker room at half-time of the big game. Of course the idea was half-baked and the gambler who came up with it was made to sleep with the fishes on an unrelated matter.

Secondly, and more importantly, the article had this little tidbit:

The first person to get sick felt symptoms of food poisoning on June 28. On average, those affected were ill for four to five days with nausea, diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever. A week later, most had regained full health, including a Telegram and Gazette reporter covering the Worcester Tornadoes.

In case you missed it - one of the people who got sick was a reporter for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette and yet the story I read yesterday in the Telegram and Gazette was from the Associated Press. The Telegram and Gazette had a first-hand source to the story but still they were too lazy or too cheap to write the story themselves.

Truly a new low in local coverage by the Worcester Telegram and Gazette.