What a delightful way to end the week:

• New York Times running on fumes (Silicon Alley Insider)

Not sure how it came to this so fast, but the New York Times (NYT) is approaching the point where it will have to manage its business primarily to conserve cash and avoid defaulting on its debt. This situation will only get worse as advertising revenue continues to fall, and it will be very serious by early next year.

The company has only $46 million of cash. It appears to be burning more than it is taking in–and plugging the hole with debt.  Specifically, it is funding operations by rolling over short-term loans–the kind that banks worldwide are cancelling or making prohibitively expensive to save their own skins.

Anyone care to guess what the NYT’s editorial policy on the credit crisis might be?

While we’re on the subject of the financial sector:

• It’s official: the New York Times is junk (Below the Beltway)

Standard & Poor’s slashed its rating on the New York Times Company by three notches to junk on Thursday after the publisher reported fresh impairment charges, a quarterly underlying loss and a review of its dividend policy.

Of course, they’ll probably get some corporate welfare a government bailout rescue rather than slipping quietly and unmourned beneath the surface, but I’ll enjoy the schadenfreude while it lasts.