Should America bail out The Boston Globe?

After taking a 23 percent pay cut -- which is supposed to go into effect next week -- TheBoston Globe's reporters had the pleasure of headlining today's paper with news that its parent, The New York Times Co. (NYT) has hired Goldman Sachs (GS) to find a buyer. Why would anyone want to buy a business that's on pace to lose $85 million this year?

The answer is: because it's a newspaper. This somehow makes it an exception to the rule that a business is worth the current value of its future cash flows. It was the magical appeal of a newspaper that got real estate mogul Sam Zell to take good money made from selling real estate at the top and pour it into The Tribune Company -- which is now bankrupt.