NY Times makes drug deal-like sale

When druggies need their fix they sell really important things for small amounts of quick cash (I'm told). That's what it looks like the New York Times did when the company sold 16 of its regional newspapers for only $150 million; in cash.

Via Reuters:

"I think that it's toward the low end of what we expected. I was expecting $150-$200 million," Evercore Partners analyst Douglas Arthur told Reuters.

"What it implies is that margins on regional newspapers were not as high as we thought, but the underlying profitability of the main New York Times is higher."

The analyst, however, said pension obligation will stay with the company and that could be one of the uses of the proceeds.

The group to be hived off has a weekday circulation of about 430,000, with newspapers such as Sarasota Herald-Tribune, The Ledger, in Florida; Herald-Journal in South Carolina; and The Press Democrat in California in its stable

 It looks like it's time for an intervention.