The mayhem in the media industry continues. The Wall Street Journal, a News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS) property, is closing its Boston bureau and sending nine employees into the wind. The newswire and MarketWatch operations are going to stay open in Boston, however, with no headcount impact.

The Journal doesn't have any plans to close other offices, according to a memo by managing editor Robert Thomson: "there are no plans, nascent or otherwise, to close any other U.S. or international bureau." The WSJ will still support an "investigative function" in Boston, but the New York-based Money and Investing team will cover Boston's mutual fund industry, which boasts such heavy hitters as Fidelity.

At the same time, magazine company Time Inc., owned by Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) is looking to cut $100 million in expenses, and layoffs will undoubtedly figure into the equation. The company that owns Time, Fortune, People and Sports Illustrated – and falls under the same umbrella as AOL, which owns BloggingStocks – is feeling the squeeze of a media recession that's even worse than the regular recession we've all been battling for what feels like decades.

It costs a fortune to cut fat. For regular people, it can mean hundreds or even thousands of dollars on gym memberships, special meals and organic restaurants. Yet, this pales in comparison to how much the Boston Globe is spending to lose some dead weight. It could cost the NY Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) property more than $1.2 million to bid adieu to the publisher that almost ran it into the ground.

Steven Ainsley has announced that he's going to retire as publisher of the Globe after having been at the helm for three years. Though quite proud of the two Pulitzer Prizes the paper picked up under Ainsley, the announcement didn't include the fact that he almost caused the newspaper retire before him. As usual, the newspaper is all too eager to talk about its awards, without even acknowledging the fact that it's on the brink of disaster.

After months of speculation and years of underperformance, the New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) has decided not to sell the Boston Globe and related businesses. The company claims that the changes made at the Globe to slash expenses and right the ship financially have made it worth holding on to the newspaper. This comes after two parties submitted their final bids (similar financially) for the beleaguered 137-year-old property.

The NY Times Co. picked up the Globe in 1993 for $1.1 billion. Since then, it's watched the paper's revenue and circulation plummet, a situation worsened by the advent of the internet and the newspaper industry's generally slow response to it. Now, it's apparently worth just under 10% of NYT's original purchase price, with the offers pushed higher by both parties' willingness to assume $59 million in pension liabilities.

The Boston Globe is burning through cash like an arsonist in an abandoned warehouse and the The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT), its parent, doesn't have much cash to burn. So now the company is looking to sell the Globe.

The New York Times -- in a fit of editorial freedom -- cites unnamed sources who report that the deadline for the first round of bidding has been extended to allow potential buyers to await the outcome of a July 20 vote by members of the Boston Newspaper Guild.

But there's more to it. According to the Times, "They said possible buyers, wary of taking on the respected but money-losing newspaper, were also looking for signs that a deep slump in advertising was beginning to level off, as some industry executives had predicted it would."

The newspaper industry is in deep trouble. How so? It costs a lot to write, print, and deliver a newspaper, and with more people getting their news for free online and a plunge in advertising, costs are higher than revenues. The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) bought my local newspaper, The Boston Globe, in 1993 for $1.1 billion and is now threatening to shut it down unless its unions agree to $20 million in cost cuts. I don't think this is a viable plan -- instead The Boston Globe should stop producing its paper version and charge for access to its online content.

The Boston Globe is suffering from drops in circulation and advertising, and it has 13 unions propping up its costs. How bad is the pain? Its average weekday circulation fell 10% to 323,983 for the six months ending September 2008. Advertising revenues across the industry declined 16% in 2008. And the Boston Newspaper Guild -- whose members include 700 editorial, advertising, and business employees -- is being asked to take pay cuts and put an end to company pension contributions and lifetime job guarantees.

Two weeks ago it was The New York Times and now it's The Boston Globe, which is also owned by The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT).

Yesterday's paper featured, for the first time in the Globe's 136-year history, an advertisement on the front page.

Why start yesterday? Here's how desperate The Globe is for cash: They printed 100,000 extra copies because of the Obama inauguration coverage, and then stuck an ad for the movie "Defiance" -- which tells the true story of four Jewish brothers from Poland who escaped the Nazis and the rescued fellow Jews -- below the fold. Globe spokesman Bob Powers told The Associated Press that the advertiser picked that day on purpose to achieve maximum exposure.

Pretty good marketing decision by that ad agency: Buy the ad on a day with tons of extra circulation and then get more publicity by being the first ad to desecrate the sacred front-page of one of the most-respected newspapers in the country.

It sounds like a good movie. I think I'll go see it.

Has management of New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) finally woken up and smelled the coffee? Not only did the third-largest newspaper publisher report awful earnings, but the New York-based company also announced that it might cut its dividend, a move that will hit the controlling Sulzberger-Ochs family where it hurts -- in the pocketbook.

Net income at the publisher of the namesake newspaper fell 51.4 percent to $6.52 million, or 5 cents a share, compared with $13.4 million, or 9 cents, a year earlier, the company said in a press release. Total revenues decreased 8.9 percent to $687.0 million from $754.4 million. Advertising revenue fell a whopping 14.4 percent as companies reduced marketing spending because of the uncertainty about the economy.

The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) today reported second quarter profit of $118.4 million, or 82 cents per share, compared with $59.6 million, or 41 cents, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, profit was 34 cents, beating Wall Street estimates of 31 cents. Sales droped 3.7 percent to $788.9 million. For earnings release, click here, For the Bloomerg News story click here and for Reuters click here.

In spite of the $814 million write-down that swung the New York Times Company to a loss for the fourth quarter, the Times has no plans to sell its Boston Globe unit. The company has received offers to buy the Globe from former General Electric CEO (and UMass grad/Boston icon) Jack Welch.

The fact that the Times isn't interested in selling the Boston Globe is, I think, a bullish sign for the industry. Industry executives still see value in the brands, even as they lose business rapidly to other media outlets. Last, month, I wrote a piece asking whether newspapers are the new railroads. If the depressed valuations that newspapers are receiving from the market are attracting the likes of Jack Welch, and the New York Times likes the Globe too much to sell to him, investors may want to take notice. There may be bargains in the industry.

The New York Times Co. (NYSE:NYT)'s fourth-quarter earnings report on Wednesday will be lousy. Analysts are expecting profit to be 46 cents compared with 64 cents a year earlier with revenue little changed at $903.9 million, according to Thomson Financial.

One of the company's few bright spots is the company's online business such as the About.Com web site, which have been showing strong revenue growth. The company's much larger print newspapers business continues to falter. Last month, the company said advertising would rise in the low single-digits at the Times and be flat to slightly down at the Boston Globe.

Chief Executive Janet Robinson has repeatedly said that the Ochs-Sulzberger family has no interest in changing the dual class of ownership that keeps them in control of the company. The company also has stressed that it has no interest in selling the Boston Globe to a group of local investors including former General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) Chief Executive Jack Welch. Meanwhile, it's been cutting jobs and has sold off its small broadcast television business.

There's little relief in sight for the company's long-suffering shareholders, who have seen the stock plunge 17 percent over the past year, underperforming Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE:DJ), Washington Post Co. (NYSE:WPO), Gannett Inc. (NYSE:GCI) and even the beleaguered Tribune Co. (NYSE:TRB).

Dow Jones has lately shown some resilience under CEO Rich Zannino who has overseen the shrinking and redesign of the Wall Street Journal. It will be interesting to see if the Times also makes big changes as well. For instance, I wonder if readers have the time to devote to epic features that run in the paper such as the story in Sunday's business section on Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT).

Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know what you're expecting.

A recent piece in the Boston Globe has a insightful look at some of the ramifications of the flood of private equity deals. The author, Steven Syre, takes a look at the massive buyout of the Hospital Corporation of America, which is a hospital operator. The buyout price came to about $21 billion.

Of course, because of the deal, the company will need to load-up on debt, which means a lower credit rating. This is particularly bad news for existing bondholders of HCA. On the announcement of the deal, the bonds sunk about 15%.

And there's more bad news: the bonds will not be redeemed. Rather, they will be assumed by the private equity buyers.

Thus, before you buy some high quality bonds, you might want to think again – especially since big-time companies are now the targets of buyouts.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates DealProfiles.com.