New York Times one step away from Junk Bond status!
The announcement today that the New York Times (NYSE:NYT) corporate credit rating and senior unsecured debt rating had been cut by the Standard & Poor's Rating Services to one level above junk bond status, makes you wonder if the highly anticipated battle between The Wall Street Journal and the Times will even occur.
Rupert Murdoch has already thrown down the challenge that he intends to become the nations paper, and to do that he must go through the New York Times, which evidently isn't going to be as hard as previously thought.
The new rating from S&P Rating Services is "BBB-," down from its former rating of "BBB."
Not only is advertising down significantly for the Times, but their circulation plunge precipitously as well, dropping by 3.9 percent. Contrast that with their major competitors The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, which both enjoyed circulation increases, and it looks grim for the fading, former national paper.
Here's the circulation numbers for the top three national newspapers:
1. USA Today, 2,284,219, up 0.3 percent
2. Wall Street Journal, 2,069,463, up 0.4 percent
3. New York Times, 1,077,256, down 3.9 percent
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» New York Times Credit Rating by S&P Now One Step from Junk Bond Status from BizofShowBiz
The continuing fall in advertising revenue for the New York Times (NYSE:NYT) has generated a cut in the credit rating of the declining paper, as Standard & Poor's Rating Services dropped the senior unsecured debt rating, along with the corporat... [Read More]
Tracked on: May 3, 2008 4:20 PM | Permalink to Trackback