Investments

Equity Method Investments

As of December 28, 2014, our investments in joint ventures consisted of equity ownership interests in the following entities:



Company	Approximate % Ownership
Donohue Malbaie Inc.	49	%
Madison Paper Industries	40	%

Our 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 “(Loss)/income from joint ventures” in our Consolidated Statements of Operations and in “Investments in joint ventures” in our Consolidated Balance Sheets.

In the first quarter of 2013, we recorded a nominal charge for the impairment of our investment in quandrantONE LLC as a result of its February 2013 announcement of the wind down of its operations.

In the fourth quarter of 2013, we completed the sale of the New England Media Group and our 49% equity interest in Metro Boston, and classified the results as discontinued operations for all periods presented. See Note 13 for additional information.

Malbaie & Madison

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

We have a 49% equity interest in a Canadian newsprint company, Malbaie. The other 51% is owned by Resolute FP Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Resolute Forest Products Inc. (“Resolute”), a Delaware corporation. Resolute is a large global manufacturer of paper, market pulp and wood products. Malbaie manufactures newsprint on the paper machine it owns within Resolute’s paper mill in Clermont, Quebec. Malbaie is wholly dependent upon Resolute for its pulp, which is purchased by Malbaie from Resolute’s Clermont paper mill.

Our Company and UPM-Kymmene Corporation, a Finnish paper manufacturing company, are partners through subsidiary companies in Madison. The Company’s percentage ownership of Madison, which represents 40%, is through an 80%-owned consolidated subsidiary. UPM-Kymmene owns 60% of Madison, including a 10% interest through a 20% noncontrolling interest in the consolidated subsidiary of the Company.

We received distributions from Malbaie of $3.9 million in 2014, $1.4 million in 2013 and $7.3 million in 2012.

We received distributions from Madison of $0.0 million in 2014, $0.0 million in 2013 and $2.0 million in 2012.

We purchased newsprint and supercalendered paper from the Paper Mills at competitive prices. Such purchases aggregated approximately $20 million in 2014, $21 million in 2013 and $26 million in 2012.

Impairment of Equity Method Investments

During the fourth quarter of 2014, we recognized an impairment charge of $9.2 million for our investment in Madison. Our proportionate share of the loss was $4.7 million after adjusting for tax and the allocation of the loss to the non-controlling interest.

Cost Method Investments

Gain on Sale of Investments

We recorded a gain on sale of investments totaling $220.3 million in 2012.

Fenway Sports Group

In the first quarter of 2012, we sold 100 of our units in Fenway Sports Group for an aggregate price of $30.0 million (pre-tax gain of $17.8 million) and in the second quarter of 2012, we sold our remaining 210 units for an aggregate price of $63.0 million (pre-tax gain of $37.8 million). Effective with the first quarter of 2012 sale, given our reduced ownership level and lack of influence on the operations of Fenway Sports Group, we changed the accounting for this investment from the equity method to the cost method. Therefore, starting in the first quarter of 2012, we no longer recognized our proportionate share of the operating results of Fenway Sports Group in joint venture results in our Consolidated Statements of Operations.

Indeed.com

In the fourth quarter of 2012, Indeed.com, a search engine for jobs in which we had an ownership interest, was sold. We recorded a pre-tax gain of $164.6 million. The pre-tax proceeds from the sale of our interest were approximately $167 million.

Impairment of Cost Method Investments

In 2012, we recorded non-cash impairment charges of $5.5 million to reduce the carrying value of certain investments to fair value. The impairment charges were primarily related to our investment in Ongo Inc., a consumer service for reading and sharing digital news and information from multiple publishers. See Note 8 for additional information regarding the fair value of these investments.