NYT recycling day

The New York Times Co. could pocket a much-needed $100 million by unloading its 16 small-town publications scattered mostly in the Deep South.

The Times yesterday said advanced talks are underway to sell its Regional Media Group to Daytona Beach, Fla.-based Halifax Media Holdings, owner of the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

A sale would give Halifax 14 dailies, 12 of them with Sunday editions, such as the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune and Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News, and two weekly papers. Five papers are in Florida. Others are in North and South Carolina, Louisiana and one in Santa Rosa, Calif. The Web sites of all are included in the deal.

It was the largest number of print titles to be jettisoned from the mother ship since the company shifted its focus on digital media for the future, using new pay models for content from its flagship New York Times.

The deal surfaced just days after the unexplained resignation of Times CEO Janet Robinson, 61, an advocate of expanding the national footprint of the print editions, including the Boston Globe.

The regional papers, run since 2009 by Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger’s cousin Michael Golden, 61, suffered a 48 percent revenue drop in the past five years due to ad declines.

However, its classified ads last year accounted for 28 percent of the parent’s total classified, exceeding that of the flagship Times at 10 percent, and the Boston Globe’s 27 percent.

One of Golden’s first moves after taking the helm of the group in 2009 was to unload real estate of the papers for $5.2 million.

Regional group revenue will be down in 2011 to about $259 million from $276.6 million in 2010, said UBS media analyst John Janedis. He estimated a sale price of as much as $100 million, with an after-tax gain of about $60 million.

Times shares fell 2.3 percent to $7.19, and are down 46 percent for one year. Shares have lost more than 80 percent since the end of 2004.