NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two prominent Bostonians on Monday denied media reports that they might try to buy the New York Times Co's Boston Globe newspaper and a stake in the group that owns the Red Sox professional baseball team.
Patrick Purcell, owner and publisher of the Globe's rival daily, the Boston Herald, said he had not held discussions with and had not been approached by potential bidders for the Globe. Former advertising executive Jack Connors, meanwhile, told the Globe he is not interested in the Times properties.
Purcell recently was hired as executive chairman of Ottaway Newspapers, a group of local papers owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. He continues to run the Herald as a separate business.
He said a Financial Times report on Friday evening that described a scenario of merging the Globe into News Corp and shutting down the Herald "is completely unfounded and not rooted in reality."
A source close to News Corp told Reuters on Friday that the company is not in discussions regarding that idea. Purcell's statement, released by the Herald, said he wants to make sure that Boston remains a two-newspaper town, an increasing rarity in the United States where increasing numbers of papers face an uncertain future as readers desert their print editions.
"Mr Purcell is steadfast in his desire to keep two editorial voices in Boston," the statement said.
Connors, who expressed interest in buying the Globe two years ago along with former General Electric Co chief Jack Welch, told the Globe that he was not interested in the paper or a 17.5 percent stake in New England Sports Ventures, which owns the Red Sox.
The New York Times is seeking a buyer for its New England Sports Ventures stake, a source familiar with the matter but not authorized to speak about it told Reuters on Saturday.
The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times reported last week that the Times had approached Connors. He could not be reached for comment. A New York Times spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment, and a spokeswoman for Welch declined to comment.
New England Sports Ventures owns the Red Sox, the Fenway Park field where the Boston-based team plays, and 80 percent of the New England Sports Network, a cable network that covers New England and broadcasts Red Sox games.
The Times is shopping the stake as it tries to pay off debt and shore up its cash resources as it faces a severe decline in advertising revenue at its newspapers.
New York Times shares fell 85 cents or 12.14 percent to $6.15 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday afternoon.
(Reported by Robert MacMillan in New York and Benjamin Klayman in Chicago; editing by John Wallace and Matthew Lewis)
