New York Times sells Boston Globe to baseball team owner

The New York Times Company announced on Saturday that it has agreed to sell The Boston Globe newspaper for $70 million cash to the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team. The Times, the premier US newspaper, is selling The Globe for a fraction of the $1.1 billion it paid for the Boston newspaper in 1993. The buyer is John W. Henry, principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, The Times said. "The Boston Globe's award-winning journalism as well as its rich history and tradition of excellence have established it as one of the most well respected media companies in the country," Henry said in a statement printed in The Globe. Included in the sale are other media properties belonging to The Times in New England -- the region around Boston -- such as the website Boston.com, the direct mail marketing company Globe Direct, and The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, a local newspaper serving central Massachusetts. The Globe had been struggling with declining newspaper circulation and ad revenue, while The Times Company over the last years has been selling its regional papers to focus on its flagship newspaper. The 141-year-old newspaper had been owned by a Boston family, the Taylors, from 1873 until it was purchased by The Times. At the time the purchase was the highest price paid for a US newspaper, according to The Times. Henry, 63, used the millions he made in investment funds to become the principal investor in the Red Sox and the Liverpool Soccer Club. He is also co-owner of the Roush Fenway Racing, a NASCAR team, the newspapers reported.