A disturbing sign of the parlous state of the newspaper industry. The New York Times is a junk bond.

One of the nation’s two flagship newspapers (the other is the Wall Street Journal) raised $250 million from the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim to shore up its faltering finances. The company will pay him 14.1% interest rate. That’s a junk bond coupon.

He also gets warrants that can be converted into nearly 16 million common shares. If he exercises the warrants Slim will control about 18% of the company