In
a new story with implications for
The New York Times,
GQ magazine -- better known as a men's fashion glossy -- aims its gun barrel at the two-year-old sale of
The Wall Street Journal to News Corp. CEO
Rupert Murdoch. "It was a stunning turn of events whose significance is still coming into focus,'' the magazine says, as it recounts a litany of predictions about where the Australian "vulgarian" Murdoch would take the storied newspaper.
One one grim prediction coming true: Murdoch is taking steps to turn the
Journal into the preeminent national daily, an attack on the market now claimed by the NYTCo.'s flagship, the
Times.
The story continues: "The Murdoch takeover marks the beginning of the end of the newspaper world as we once knew it. In the two years since the Bancrofts sold out, nearly 200 newspapers in the United States have gone under. The
Rocky Mountain News,
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and
Ann Arbor News are dead. The
San Francisco Chronicle,
Boston Globe,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
Philadelphia Inquirer, and entire Tribune chain are barely hanging on. Nearly 47,000 jobs have been lost. But under Murdoch, the
Wall Street Journal is not only still publishing, but also, unbelievably, hiring."
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.[Image: GQ]
The just-announced deal with Henry McCance, chairman emeritus of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Greylock Partners, doesn't disclose terms. In a statement, NYT Co. said it would record an undisclosed pre-tax gain in the second quarter. The deal still leaves the Times with a nearly 17% position in the pro team, plus affiliated businesses in New England Sports Ventures.
In a new story today, Reuters reports that technology, regulation and growing competitors are chipping away at Telmex, the cornerstone of big New York Times Co. investor Carlos Slim's telecommunications holdings, and "once-frantic sales growth" at his America Movil wireless operator is tapering off.
That is management's decision about whether to charge consumers to read content on its Website, says MarketWatch media columnist Jon Friedman. "Times people stress that Arthur Sulzberger Jr. (left), chairman and publisher, and Janet Robinson, the parent company's president and chief executive, have thoroughly researched the pros and cons of charging for content,'' Friedman writes today. "But as the media world has waited for the Times to do something, its top management has maddeningly shuffled its feet on this crucial issue."
Harbinger owns 18.4 million shares of the NYTCo., according to its most recent federal regulatory filing, on Dec. 3 -- a stake that it's recently been reducing. That was equal to about 13% of all shares, based on the last 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
In a new story with implications for The New York Times, GQ magazine -- better known as a men's fashion glossy -- aims its gun barrel at the two-year-old sale of The Wall Street Journal to News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. "It was a stunning turn of events whose significance is still coming into focus,'' the magazine says, as it recounts a litany of predictions about where the Australian "vulgarian" Murdoch would take the storied newspaper.
As The New York Times draws closer to cutting 100 newsroom jobs, a review of the parent company's total employment reveals a declining workforce in recent years. The chart (left) shows total employment for the New York Times Co. at the end of each year, based on annual reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
