Solutions for the ailing print industry?

Posted by Lauren Drablier on January 26, 2009 at 8:04 AM

The New York Times has announced that it will sell a "substantial part" of its building, Editor & Publisher reports. This follows Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's $250 million loan to the NYT.

The Times reported that it is in "advanced negotiations to sell a substantial portion of its 52-story headquarters building on Eighth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan to W. P. Carey & Company, an investment and management firm that specializes in so-called sale-leaseback transactions." The company would buy only the 19 floors that it uses in the building, not the 6 others that it leases out. In addition, the Times would be able to buy back the space after the ten-year lease is over.

Newspapers are having to find solutions to make up for dropping revenue. In France, the state has even interviened in the ailing print industry. French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to provide free newspaper subscriptions to teenagers for their 18th birthday, the AP reports.

Sarkozy's initiative is aimed at encouraging younger generations to read newspapers and help the newspaper industry "modernize and invest in the print media sector in exchange for other structural reforms."

"None of the proposed measures ... will be useful in the end if the profession doesn't meet its challenges," Sarkozy stated. "The industry has a future to reinvent. ... Time is running out."

Sources: Editor & Publisher, Associated Press via Poytner