New York Times Shops Times Building for Loan

Mainstream Media Financial Woes
The New York Hard Times?

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NY Times Stock: Grey Bag Lady?

The New York Times is trying to drum up some cash and is shopping its building on Eighth Avenue. It would like to secure a $225 million loan, with the NY Times Tower as collateral.

The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze as the company grapples with tighter credit and shrinking profits.
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The Times Company owns 58 percent of the 52-story, 1.5 million-square-foot tower on Eighth Avenue, which was designed by the architect Renzo Piano, and completed last year. The developer Forest City Ratner owns the rest of the building. The Times Company’s portion of the building is not currently mortgaged, and some investors have complained that the company has too much of its capital tied up in that real estate.

Regardless of how decrepit the NY Times (the newspaper) is, the building is pretty snazzy.



"The New York Times Building is a skyscraper on the west side of Midtown Manhattan that was completed in 2007. Its chief tenant is The New York Times Company, publisher of the The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, as well as other regional papers. Construction was a joint venture of The Times Company, Forest City Ratner Companies - the Cleveland-based real estate firm redeveloping the Brooklyn Atlantic rail yards - and ING Real Estate."


The NYT's stock price has steadily declined over the past 15 months. Friday, the Times' stock closed at $7.64. It was over $24 in 2007.

Standard & Poor’s recently lowered its credit rating on the Times Company below investment grade, and Moody’s Investors Service has said it was considering a similar move. Times Company stock, which has lost more than half its value this year, closed on Friday at $7.64, down 30 cents.

The New York Times is the fourth-bestselling newspaper in the New York metro area.

One would guess that there's not much demand for "news" with a decidedly left slant.




by Mondo
image/source: Wikipedia, New York Times Tower

Four Falling Flags Flumox Hillary

Inspired by this incident, captured on video:


[graphics: RidesAPaleHorse]



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Danger Ahead: Falling Cow Zone

Slippery pavement's not the only hazard for the unwitting motorist these days. Beware of of the Falling Cow Zone. A little reminder, courtesy of DBKP and RidesAPaleHorse.

What's with all the falling cows? Three stories about cows falling from the sky.

THE STORY:
From Seattle Pilot::

A Chelan County fire chief says a couple were lucky they weren't killed by a cow that fell off a cliff and smashed their minivan.

District 5 Chief Arnold Baker says they missed being killed by a matter of inches Sunday as they drove on Highway 150 near Manson.

The 600-pound cow fell about 200 feet and landed on the hood of the minivan carrying Charles Everson Jr. and his wife Linda of Westland, Mich., who were in the area celebrating their one-year wedding anniversary. They were checked at Lake Chelan Community Hospital as a precaution. The van was heavily damaged, including a broken windshield

Lest you think this is a freak phenomenon, here's one from lsst year in the U.K. from The Guardian:

A woman sunbathing at Compton Bay on the Isle of Wight had a narrow escape when a cow fell 16 metres (50ft) off a cliff to its death and landed where she had been lying moments earlier.

Sally Brown, 51, of Cowes, had just picked up her body board when she heard a loud noise as the animal hurtled down a cliff. She said later: "It would have killed me if it landed on me." Jane Phillips, of Compton Farm, apologised, adding: "It doesn't bear thinking about what would have happened if it had landed on her." Her husband Den covered the dead cow with a canvas until it could be moved at low tide.

And finally, one last look at the Falling Cow Syndrome in legend. This from Flat Rock:

According to Reuters, the dazed crew of a Japanese trawler was plucked out of the Sea of Japan earlier this year clinging to the wreckage of their sunken ship. The rescue was followed by immediate imprisonment once authorities questioned the sailors about their ship's loss. To a man they claimed that a cow falling out of a clear blue sky had struck the trawler amidships, shattering its hull and sinking the vessel within minutes.

The men remained in prison for several weeks - until the Russian Air Force reluctantly informed Japanese authorities that the crew of one of their cargo planes had apparently stolen a cow wandering at the edge of a Siberian airfield, forced the cow into the plane's hold, and hastily taken off for home.

Okay, so the last one is an urban legend, but that still three stories of falling cows, two which are legit.

As if there's not enough to worry about.

by Mondoreb
[image:RidesAPaleHorse]




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