Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- New York Times Co. ended efforts to sell the Boston Globe, saying the newspaper is headed for a more secure financial future after union concessions.

The decision to keep the Globe and its Boston.com Web site came “after careful consideration and analysis,” the New York- based company said yesterday in a regulatory filing.

Times Co. Chief Executive Officer Janet Robinson told Globe workers on Sept. 9 that a sale was no longer a financial imperative after cost reductions, although it remained an option. The newspaper has cut jobs, wages and benefits, and trimmed sections as ad sales plunge.

“The company has ample liquidity for a couple years, but amputating the money-losing Globe would have helped its internally generated liquidity,” Mike Simonton, a credit analyst with Fitch Ratings in Chicago, said in an e-mail.

The process is still under way for Times Co. to sell its holding in New England Sports Ventures, which has a minority stake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team, Abbe Serphos, a Times Co. spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview. Serphos declined to discuss the finances of Times Co.’s individual newspapers.

Times Co. was unchanged at $8.67 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have gained 18 percent this year.

‘Possible Route’

“All along, we explicitly recognized that a careful restructuring of the Globe was one possible route,” Robinson and Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said in a memo to the newspaper’s staff. “The Globe is on track to achieve substantial savings and is on a path to a more secure financial future.”

Robinson will address Globe staff tomorrow, according to the memo.

Strategic alternatives are still being assessed for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette in Massachusetts, and the company is determined to reach a conclusion quickly, Times Co. said.

Times Co. had been seeking to sell the Globe along with the rest of its New England Media Group, which also includes the Telegram & Gazette. The publisher threatened to close the Globe in April if unions hadn’t agreed to $20 million in cost cuts, according to the Newspaper Guild.

To contact the reporters on this story: Greg Bensinger in New York at gbensinger1@bloomberg.net; Sarah Rabil in New York at srabil@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 15, 2009 16:18 EDT