Bedfellows

NYT Company Hires Goldman

Needs help selling Boston Globe and other papers.

Match made in heaven, or hell? The side-by-side funeral marches of the banking and newspaper industries culminate (metaphorically, at least) in today’s announcement that The New York Times Company has hired Goldman Sachs to handle the probable sale of The Boston Globe as well as bids on “any and all” of its New England properties in coming weeks. In an attempt to attract bidders to the 137-year-old Globe, The Times Co. proposed a $10 million package of concessions that would reduce the pay of members of the Globe’s largest union, the Boston Newspaper Guild, by 23 percent. The Guild rejected the proposed pay cuts and petitioned the U.S. government’s National Labor Relations Board, prompting The Times Co. to illicit the help of Goldman Sachs. The Times has said the Globe will post an operating loss of $85 million this year.