The New York Times (NYT) ready to sell Boston Red Sox stake

Things are bad at The New York Times (NYSE:NYT). Advertising revenue at the company's newspapers fell 21% in November. Even online sales were down. Since the internet is supposed to be the lifeboat of the industry, signs could not have been more troubling.

The media company has $400 million in debt due next year. It would like to mortgage its headquarters building, but the real estate market in New York City is not exactly robust.

The one asset NYT has that is worth some real cash is its piece of the Boston Red Sox and the television business built around the team. Why the firm did not sell it sooner is a mystery. It is hardly "core" to being a newspaper company.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the The New York Times Company owns 17.5% of New England Sports Ventures, which owns the team and its stadium.. The paper notes that "Barclays Capital estimates the Times Co.'s investment is worth about $166 million; analysts and sports bankers recently told Reuters the Times Co. could raise at least $200 million if it sold its stake."

The same analysis shows that the Boston Globe is worth a tiny $20 million. Two years ago, the number was put at over $500 million, but the paper is hemorrhaging money now.

The management at The New York Times could not have made worse mistakes and now the company's main asset, its flagship paper, is at risk of being sold in a liquidation. Why would the company keep assets like a baseball team and the second-rate internet company which it owns, About.com. Why would it hold onto small regional newspapers around the country?

The New York Times is running out of options. And, executives at the firm will be remembered as the people who destroyed it by acting too slowly in auctioning off pieces it should not have owned in the first place. Now many of those assets are worth close to nothing. Even a baseball team probably losses some of its value in a deep recession.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.