The New York Times confirmed this morning that it’s looking to get rid of its stake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team, something previously reported by a number of news outlets.

The Times could raise at least $200 million selling its stake, analysts have said, though it should be noted that selling anything these days — even part of a first class baseball organization — is no easy task.

Check back to MediaFile for more on the sale shortly.

Meanwhile, here’s a recap of the New York Times decline in quarterly results:

The Times’ fourth-quarter net income fell 48 percent to $27.6 million, or 19 cents a share, compared with $53 million, or 37 cents a share, in the quarter a year earlier.

Excluding a writedown related to the International Herald Tribune, its European newspaper, the Times reported earnings of 26 cents a share. The average analyst estimate was 27 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue fell 10.8 percent to $772.1 million, beating the average Wall Street forecast of $761.1 million.

In the fourth quarter, advertising revenue fell 17.6 percent. Ad revenue at the news media group — which includes its namesake newspaper, The Boston Globe and other local papers throughout the United States — fell 18.4 percent.

Online revenue, including About and its newspaper websites, fell 2.9 percent to $92.5 million.

Keep an eye on:

• Only days before the National Football League’s championship game, Pepsi executives are still debating which advertisements they will run during NBC’s broadcast of the Super Bowl on Sunday, which will likely be viewed by nearly 100 million Americans (Reuters) 
• Union moderates fighting for control of the deeply splintered Screen Actors Guild on Monday ousted the hard-line chief negotiator they blame for months of stalled contract talks with Hollywood studios (Reuters)
• A cable channel from Paramount Pictures, MGM, and Lionsgate that is intended as a competitor to HBO and Showtime will be name Epix and wil launch online in May (New York Times)

(Photo: Reuters)

The Screen Actors Guild ran an ad in the local paper on Wednesday seeking better labor terms. We’re not talking about the L.A. Times here, but rather the Idaho Mountain Express, straight out of Sun Valley, Idaho, where Hollywood’s elite are bumping shoulders at the annual Allen & Co conference.

SAG was dealt a blow late Tuesday when another smaller Hollywood union ratified a new prime-time TV contract.  SAG’s contract talks stalemated last week over some of the same issues that led to a 14-week screenwriters’ strike that paralyzed Hollywood and centered on disagreements over how union talent should be paid for work created for the Internet.

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists won final approval despite an unusual all-out campaign by SAG to vote down the AFTRA accord. A “no” vote would have given SAG more leverage to negotiate a more favorable settlement with studios.

So why the ad in Idaho? Here’s what Screen Actors Guild National President and National Negotiating Committee Chair Alan Rosenberg said in a release:

This media conference is the place where significant deals get made.  We wanted to remind the entertainment media leaders in attendance that there is another important deal to be made.  Actors are the creative heart of the entertainment business, and our Screen Actors Guild members want to partner with our industry to invest in and share the rewards of our mutual digital future. Let’s keep talking and let’s make a fair deal.