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Companies oftentimes use dividends as a reward for patient investors so they can show their appreciation for sticking by them in good times and bad. In the case of the New York Times, the payout is designed to help investors forget about the company’s misery.
The Times is a great and sometimes flawed news organization. As a public company, it’s simply pitiful. About the only way the shareholders get any justice from the controlling Sulzberger family is through the dividend. Think of it like beggars getting crumbs off the king’s table. Now, even that pittance of 31 cents a share may be in jeopardy
Now that courts have let the FTC have another bite at the Whole Foods (WFMI) merger with Wild Oats, it plans to examine the deal within an inch of its life. If the agency proves that the marriage is indeed anti-competitive, it will be interesting to see how it plans to de-merge the company. 
With the price of crude down from over $145 to about $115, all of the talk is that the rising price of oil has been contained by falling demand and a better dollar. Almost every one of the dynamics which took oil prices up are gone now.The cost of things like gas can go back to "normal".
