Mindich, radio and The Phoenix

[thirdendorsed]

You have to wonder whether there's another shoe to drop in the Mindich communications empire. He's taking in a bundle of cash from the sale of his radio stations, I believe he is a 100 percent owner in Lynn and a 75 percent owner in N.H. The cost basis for those properties would seem to present all sorts of tax consequences on the comparatively hefty sale prices. They're in LLCs which, as I understand it, means the income gets taxed at the personal level.

Consider the tax situation and the fact that he, the judge and several generations of their descendants are now set financially makes one wonder if he needs the Phoenix any longer.

Are there tax advantages to unloading the newspaper to take some kind of loss or even shutting it down?

He seems really out on a limb as far as tax consequences go...

 

[raccoonradio]

...sell the Phoenix to the Globe perhaps..? I think he's at least saying that property, etc. will continue as is. but...

 

[12 In a Row]

2012 and beyond, towers/transmitters and a printing press are not exactly growth industries.

 

[reelyreal]

The other 25% of WFEX is owned by "The Bradley M. Mindich 1993 Trust," a trust that benefits his son Brad.

 

[Fenway1912]

He is also selling the Brookline Ave building and is looking for space elsewhere.

He made his fortune with Adult personals nationwide. Today the Phoenix is very thin.

I never understood why he kept the studios in Lynn when he had space on Brookline Ave for them.

 

[aaronread]

2012 and beyond, towers/transmitters and a printing press are not exactly growth industries.

True, but while I don't know Mr. Mindich personally, I get the impression that he LIKES owning the Phoenix. IIRC he's in his late 60's, isn't he? Almost 70? If so, he's probably not really thinking "long term" per se...I bet he's thinking he'll keep doing it as long as he's physically able and as long as the paper can survive financially.

I have to think that's why he held onto 101.7 as long as he did; undoubtedly the "handwriting has been on the wall" regarding ad revenue for years. I'll bet CC made an offer high enough that he knew he'd never get anything like that offer ever again; there's every reason to believe that station values are only going to continue to decline with time.

And this way he gets a nice infusion of cash to keep the Phoenix running a little longer, too. That's something I hadn't thought about until just now. Prior to now, I was a little mad at Mindich for "selling out," given that if he really wanted to keep WFNX going, he could've at least tried the listener-supported model for a year or two. But now it occurs to me that maybe he had to choose between saving the Phoenix and saving WFNX...and undoubtedly he can get a lot more money to achieve said "saving" by selling a station license than by selling a newspaper.

 

[newsbot]

You have to wonder whether there's another shoe to drop in the Mindich communications empire.

Mindich's recent moves point to sacrificing other parts of the empire in order to save the Phoenix. The anonymous tip published here (complete with a lot of NSFW language) appears to be 100% legit. Indeed, he seems to be bailing as fast as he can.

http://digboston.com/think/2012/05/phoenix-in-flames/

A PMCG source has conceded using the proceeds from the sales to restructure the company's bank financing:

http://www.downeast.com/media-mutt/2012/may/failing-check-deceased

 

[fybush]

You have to wonder whether there's another shoe to drop in the Mindich communications empire.

Mindich's recent moves point to sacrificing other parts of the empire in order to save the Phoenix. The anonymous tip published here (complete with a lot of NSFW language) appears to be 100% legit.

http://digboston.com/think/2012/05/phoenix-in-flames/

Dig has hardly been an unbiased source for news about its competitor; they were the ones who put out the story back in 2010 that the Phoenix was poised to sell WFNX to Entercom to become "Mike 101.7" and free up 93.7 for WEEI-FM. That turned out to be one whopping red herring, as I recall.

 

[newsbot]

The rivalry between the Dig and the Phoenix is nothing new, but surely it is one thing to report on rumors (as the Dig did about Entercom and WFNX) but quite another to report that something is a done deal (as the Dig did not.) We shall see if all the elements of the Dig article pan out, but already a good bit of it has come to pass. In any event, the Dig has issued its own elegy to 'FNX, apparently without irony:

http://digboston.com/think/2012/05/dear-reader-why-you-should-care-about-wfnx-going-off-the-air/

 

[aaronread]

A PMCG source has conceded using the proceeds from the sales to restructure the company's bank financing:
http://www.downeast.com/media-mutt/2012/may/failing-check-deceased

A commentor on this story claims that the 101.7 license was sold for a "rumored" $11 million.

Wow, if that's true?? Yeesh, to think 102.5 sold for nearly 10 times that just a few years ago. I mean, big difference in the size/reach of the signals, sure...but STILL!

 

[GenXRadio]

I never understood why Mindich didn't embrace technology more in being able to keep his lucrative adult ad business and move it into the digital age.
I'm not saying stop publishing the Phoenix or the ads in there but why not make the Phoenix site more dynamic and maximize the revenue possibilities?
Same with WFNX, they seemed more about spot sales than partnerships with businesses and didn't nearly utilize their web site as well as they could have.
They have a HUGE music library & much of it must be digitized so why not create a "Leftover lunch stream" complete with jocks - tracked of course and spots so it's not an alternative to the over the air broadcast but rather it's another option if you want to listen to 80's music from your desk at work and has all the revenue possibilities.
Sure you'd have to give Kramer a bit of a bump in salary but also think about all the former FNX'ers who you could have tracking shifts that would like to have some extra money in their pocket and be "back on the air" with FNX.
Listeners would flock to it, the younger listeners may stay on the over the air product or go back and forth between live and over the air product.
You could have also put together a stream of all Boston bands from the past 30 years too, again still being able to sell spots or even better have it presented by a business with some spots in between and jocks tracking too.
Remember the Fort Apache concert series? just one example of FNX programming that I'm sure would be perfect for a digital music stream form their site.
Yes there would need to be an investment in technology and servers but the possiblities were there but nobody thought to explore them.
I also never saw a direct link from the Phoenix site to the live radio programming at FNX, you could have had another place for potential listeners to get to your programming too.
There was a link to the FNX site but would it have been that difficult to just put a listen live button on the Phoenix page?
Technology Mr. Mindich could have been your friend if you had invested in it & explored it much more deeply than you did.

 

[aaronread]

I never understood why Mindich didn't embrace technology more in being able to keep his lucrative adult ad business and move it into the digital age. I'm not saying stop publishing the Phoenix or the ads in there but why not make the Phoenix site more dynamic and maximize the revenue possibilities?

I say this with the big caveat that porn is immensely lucrative online. Granted, the adult ads weren't exactly porn but there's enough similarities that I wanted to put a caveat out there.

Okay, that said, I suspect the reason why is that the value of online advertising (to the publisher) is a tiny fraction of the print advertising. It's very, very, very difficult to "maximum the revenue" because your online audience starts cannibalizing your print audience looooong before you get enough revenue off the online side to be worth it.