NYT Ready to Sell BoSox Stake

With revenues plummeting and advertisers and readers fleeing, the cash-starved New York Times Co is looking to offload a once-sacrosanct asset—its 17.5% stake in the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Park, the Wall Street Journal reports. Revenues at the Times Co arm that includes the Grey Lady and the Boston Globe fell 22% last month, and the company is scrambling for capital to shore it up.

The Red Sox holdings could bring upward of $200 million. The Globe—worth about $550 million just two years ago, when the Times flatly refused to sell it—might be tossed into the package, but it's now valued at $20 million. Execs say 2009 will be "among the most challenging years" the company has faced.
(More New York Times Company stories.)