New York Times Suspended Dividend.

Not a big surprise:

The publisher said in a statement today it suspended its quarterly dividend of 6 cents a share to help reduce debt, three months after slashing the payout. It joins McClatchy Co., owner of the Sacramento Bee, and Media General Inc. in halting dividends.
The suspension will save New York Times about $34.5 million annually, based on shares outstanding. The publisher is cutting jobs and selling assets as advertising dwindles. It’s seeking buyers for its stake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team and is in talks about a sale-leaseback on its Manhattan headquarters.
“It’s going to be very challenging for them to generate much free cash flow even after this cut,” said Mike Simonton, a credit analyst at Fitch Ratings. “It’s certainly a prudent move to preserve liquidity in light of the difficult credit market and their heavy debt burden.”
New York Times fell 20 cents, or 5.4 percent, to $3.51 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, before the announcement. The shares have declined 82 percent in the past 12 months.
“Today’s decision provides the company with additional financial flexibility given the current economic environment and the uncertain business outlook,” Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said in the statement. The Ochs-Sulzberger family controls New York Times and has benefited from the dividend on its Class B stock.

Here’s the Times opining against cutting dividend taxes in 2003.

Posted by on February 19th, 2009 at 7:29 pm


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