New York Times Suspends Stocholder Dividends
The New York Times Company suspended dividend payments to shareholders on Thursday for the first time in four decades as a publicly traded company, another in a series of concessions because of sharply lower newspaper revenue.
The decision by the board pre-empts a dividend payment that, on the usual schedule, would have been paid later this month. The annualized savings is just $34.5 million, because the dividend was already cut sharply last fall.
“Today’s decision provides the company with additional financial flexibility given the current economic environment and the uncertain business outlook,” the company chairman, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., said in a statement.
The “current economic environment” may be hurting the Times right now, but it’s worth noting that the company’s slide started well before the current recession.
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