Investments in Joint Ventures

12 Months Ended

Dec. 25, 2011

Equity Method Investments and Joint Ventures [Abstract]

As of December 25, 2011, our Company’s investments in joint ventures consisted of equity ownership interests in the following entities:



Company	Approximate % Ownership
Metro Boston LLC (“Metro Boston”)	49	%
Donohue Malbaie Inc. (“Malbaie”)	49	%
Madison Paper Industries (“Madison”)	40	%
quadrantONE LLC (“quadrantONE”)	25	%
Fenway Sports Group	7.3	%

Our Company’s investments above are accounted for under the equity method, and are recorded in “Investments in joint ventures” in our Consolidated Balance Sheets. Our proportionate shares of the operating results of our investments are recorded in “Income from joint ventures” in our Consolidated Statements of Operations and in “Investments in joint ventures” in our Consolidated Balance Sheets.

Metro Boston

We own a 49% interest in Metro Boston, which publishes a free daily newspaper in the greater Boston area.

Malbaie & Madison

We also have investments in a Canadian newsprint company, Malbaie, and a partnership operating a supercalendered paper mill in Maine, Madison (together, the “Paper Mills”).

Our Company and UPM-Kymmene Corporation, a Finnish paper manufacturing company, are partners through subsidiary companies in Madison. Our Company’s percentage ownership of Madison, which represents 40%, is through an 80%-owned consolidated subsidiary. UPM-Kymmene owns a 10% interest in Madison through a 20% noncontrolling interest in the consolidated subsidiary of our Company.

We received distributions from Malbaie of $0 million in 2011, $0 million in 2010 and $2.8 million in 2009.

We received distributions from Madison of $0 million in 2011, $5.3 million in 2010 and $0 million in 2009.

The News Media Group purchased newsprint and supercalendered paper from the Paper Mills at competitive prices. Such purchases aggregated approximately $34 million in 2011, $33 million in 2010 and $39 million in 2009.

In 2010, we recorded a pre-tax gain of $12.7 million from the sale of an asset at one of the Paper Mills. Our share of the pre-tax gain, after eliminating the noncontrolling interest portion, was $10.2 million. The $12.7 million gain is included in “Income from joint ventures” in our Consolidated Statements of Operations.

quadrantONE

We own a 25% interest in quadrantONE, an online advertising network that sells bundled premium, targeted display advertising onto local newspaper and other Web sites.

Fenway Sports Group

As of December 25, 2011, we owned a 7.3% interest in Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Boston Red Sox baseball club; Liverpool Football Club (a soccer team in the English Premier League); approximately 80% of New England Sports Network (a regional cable sports network); and 50% of Roush Fenway Racing (a leading NASCAR team).

On July 1, 2011, we sold 390 of our units in Fenway Sports Group for $117.0 million. We recorded a pre-tax gain of $65.3 million in the third quarter of 2011. This transaction is in addition to the sale of 50 of our units in Fenway Sports Group that resulted in a pre-tax gain of $9.1 million in the second quarter of 2010. Following these transactions, we owned 310 units, or 7.3%, of Fenway Sports Group.

On February 3, 2012, we sold additional units of Fenway Sports Group. See Note 21 for additional information regarding the sale. We continue to market our remaining units in Fenway Sports Group, in whole or in parts.

The following tables present summarized combined information for our Company’s unconsolidated joint ventures. Separate financial statements of these unconsolidated joint ventures are not required since none of our investments are considered individually significant. Summarized unaudited condensed combined balance sheets of our Company’s unconsolidated joint ventures were as follows as of:



(In thousands)	December 31, 2011		December 31, 2010
Current assets	$	262,203	$	272,672
Non-current assets	1,405,110		1,421,083
Total assets	1,667,313		1,693,755
Current liabilities	551,105		426,020
Non-current liabilities	518,723		613,971
Total liabilities	1,069,828		1,039,991
Equity	522,930		580,603
Noncontrolling interest	74,555		73,161
Total liabilities and equity	$	1,667,313	$	1,693,755

Summarized unaudited condensed combined income statements of our Company’s unconsolidated joint ventures were as follows for the years ended:



(In thousands)	December 31, 2011			December 31, 2010			December 31, 2009
Revenues	$	1,203,537		$	936,223		$	844,950
Costs and expenses	1,203,181			850,950			739,289
Operating income	356			85,273			105,661
Other (expense)/income	(10,014		)	14,724			5,418
Pre-tax (loss)/income	(9,658		)	99,997			111,079
Income tax (benefit)/expense	(25,004		)	(111		)	932
Net income	15,346			100,108			110,147
Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest	(23,517		)	(23,725		)	(20,631		)
Net (loss)/income less noncontrolling interest	$	(8,171	)	$	76,383		$	89,516

- Definition

The entire disclosure for equity investment, or group of investments, for which combined disclosure is appropriate, including: (a) the name of each investee and percentage of ownership of common stock, (b) accounting policies for investments in common stock, (c) difference between the amount at which the investment is carried and the amount of underlying equity in net assets and the accounting treatment of the difference, (d) the total fair value of each identified investment for which a market value is available, (e) summarized information as to assets, liabilities, and results of operations of the investees (for investments in unconsolidated subsidiaries, common stock of joint ventures, or other investments using the equity method), and (f) material effects of possible conversions, exercises, or contingent issuances of the investee. Other disclosures include (a) the names of any investee in which the investor owns 20 percent or more of the voting stock and investment is not accounted for using the equity method, and the reasons why not, and (b) the names of any investee in which the investor owns less than 20 percent of the voting stock and the investment is accounted for using the equity method, and the reasons why it is.

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