Platinum Equity, the private equity firm that recently bought The San Diego Union-Tribune, has joined the bidding to acquire The Boston Globe from The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT).

The New York Times reported that "Platinum, based in Beverly Hills, bid $35 million and would assume $59 million in pension liabilities, according to people briefed on the process, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to discuss the matter."

The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) is set to report Q1 earnings on Tuesday, April 21. Don't expect a profit. In fact, I wouldn't expect much of anything. After all, we are talking about a company that makes its money off newsprint. Sad as it might be to say, newspapers are fast becoming dinosaurs in the age of digital information.

According to this source, analysts think that the New York Times will lose about $0.04 per share. That's really bad, considering that the same source says that the company was profitable in the year-ago frame, generating $0.09 per share. It isn't surprising though, is it? Not only has the recession destroyed advertising growth in all forms of media, but newspapers simply aren't looked to anymore as the first source of news. The Internet has disrupted that reputation for good.

According to a transcript of the News Corp (NYSE:NWS) earnings call posted on Alley Insider, advertising revenue at The Wall Street Journal is down 20% so far this year. What does that say for The Boston Globe or The New York Times which are both owned by The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT)?

McClatchy (NYSE:MNI), the third largest newspaper chain in the US, announced a quarterly operating loss yesterday. That means it no longer has the money to pay interest on its debt. Either creditors will have to take a haircut or the company's papers will have to be sold. off.

It is now clear that no major newspaper in America is making a dime. Some reports say that The Globe loses $1 million a week.

Selling big newspaper may be impossible even if the price for some of them may just be $1. A new owner would have to be willing to shoulder huge operating losses and there may be no recovery in site.

The primary newspapers in some of the nation's largest cities may go away this year.

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

The Minneapolis Star Tribune filed for bankruptcy yesterday. The Boston Globe announced it would lay off workers. The two papers are among the twenty largest in the US.

While some local papers in small towns are doing well because they have no competition, the dailies in large cities compete with radio, TV, and websites covering news in the same regions that the papers do.

The fact of the matter is that newspapers cannot cover their printing and distribution costs with the amount of money they bring in from advertising and subscriptions. Some have relatively successful websites, but these sites often compete with the physical paper for reading time. People are only willing to spend so much time getting information.

One of the options that newspapers have is to produce much smaller papers, perhaps eight pages a day. These products could have more pages on any given day if marketers supplied enough profitable advertising or inserts. But, the cost of manufacturing and distributing the big city daily would come down considerably.,

Why would that help? Only if the smaller paper had brief summaries of stories that pointed people to the paper's website for the detailed articles. The newspaper would become, in essence, a TV Guide for newspaper websites. The cost of production for the paper would drop. Audiences for their websites should rise.

Newspapers are running out of ideas to save themselves. Maybe this one would work.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

I guess that it's only fitting that in a day where GateHouse Media shares debut in a successful IPO, that we also hear that The Boston Globe might be sold.

GateHouse Media, Inc. (NYSE:GHS), a local newspaper and online publisher, rose 20% in its market debut today before closing up 17.61%, or $3.17, from its increased pricing of $18 a share. More on GHS IPO here.

Today, we also learned of preliminary plans by no other than former General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) CEO, Jack Welch and advertising exec Jack Connor to buy The Boston Globe from The New York Times Co. (NYSE:NYT).

Investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) helps the two investors with the potential deal. According to some involved in the discussion, JPMorgan has valued the Globe at $550 million to $600 million, well below the $1.1 billion The Times paid for it in 1993. This isn't that surprising since The Globe financial results haven't been stellar to say the least.

Welch and Connor are both Boston residents, which fits the recent trend of returning newspapers to local hands. However, The Times has repeatedly said the The Globe isn't for sale.

[Photo Chris Kirkman]