NYT to sell share in Boston Red Sox

The New York Times would be selling its share of the Boston Red Sox baseball team. The company has revealed late yesterday that its income for the last three months of 2008 fell by nearly 48% year on year.

Janet L Robinson, the president and chief executive for the NYT’s parent company, warned that the rate of decline in print advertising revenue in January had accelerated from December.

The company said this was due to weakness in print advertising, its main source of income, across all of its major properties. Revenue from its digital businesses were also down year on year, the firm said.

However, circulation revenue was up 3.7% after prices increases were introduced for the New York Times and the Boston Globe.

Robinson said the publisher was responding to the present realities in its markets by looking to reduce costs and improve the financial position by completing the Slim transaction.