NY Times threatens to shut down Boston Globe

Washington, Apr 5 (ANI): The New York Times Company might shut down the Boston Globe if the labour unions fail to agree on its demand of making 20 million dollars worth of concessions.

The Times Company and Boston Globe made the demands on Thursday morning in an approximately 90-minute meeting with leaders of the newspaper's 13 unions, Union officials were quoted by the Politico, as saying.

The Globe, which has already gone through several rounds of deep cost-cutting and staff reductions, is now expected to make concessions on its pay, pension contributions and lifetime job guarantees enjoyed by some veteran employees, Politico stated.

On Thursday, management informed union leaders that the Globe would lose 85 million dollars in 2009, unless serious cutbacks were made, said a Globe employee, who was briefed on the discussions.

Last year, the paper lost an estimated 50 million dollars, the employee said.

The New York Times, according to the analysts, made its worst business decisions in the recent decades, when it bought the Boston Globe for a record 1.1 billion dollars in 1993.

Just a few years back, Jack Welch and Jack Connors expressed interest in the Globe, which was still considered to be worth around 500 million dollars.

However, the Times did not show interest in selling the newspaper company then. By late 2008, as The Wall Street Journal noted, Barclays had valued the paper at just 20 million dollars.

Moreover, the prominent investors had stopped entertaining any talks on deals with the Times Company.

Meanwhile, the Globe's advertisement revenue also started drying up. .

The Time magazine this year has placed the Globe fifth on its list of "The 10 Most Endangered Newspapers in America." (ANI)