Target: NYT (Murdoch)

[TomInTib]

If the Gray Lady didn't have enough problems battling industrywide woes, now she has Rupert Murdoch to worry about.

The media billionaire has made no secret of his desire to take aim at the New York Times once his News Corp. acquires Dow Jones & Co. and its flagship Wall Street Journal in a $5-billion deal expected to close this fall.

Murdoch said during an earnings conference call last week that he wanted the financial newspaper to have "more coverage of national, international and nonbusiness news . . . all to better compete with the New York Times and other national newspapers."

In private, Murdoch has been more blunt.

"Rupert thinks the Times is vulnerable," a longtime senior executive said. "He's going to go after them."

Like other newspapers across the country, the Times has been tightening its belt and has seen its stock price languish as readers and advertisers migrate to the Web. Nonetheless, it has fared better than other publications, retaining much of its circulation and advertising by remaining the essential newspaper of the East Coast elite.

So where does Murdoch believe the Times is vulnerable?

Read more here
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/08/13/target-nyt_n_60213.html

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. I don't quite get it. Times readers are going to...

abandon the Times en masse to read a Murdoch rag? What planet is he living on?

For the record: Murdoch original aim was to put the NY Daily News out of business when he bought the NY POST; after twenty five + years the News, which costs twice what the Post costs at the newstand, has twice the readership of the Post.

[BlooInBloo]

2. He took CNN down, convincing them to be more faux-like, thus ruining them....

... There's no reason why that's impossible for the NYT.

[HeraldSquare212]

3. losing their position

The NYT is less and less essential to anyone. They have remade themselves into a mediocre lifestyles magazine.

[BlooInBloo]

4. They did it to themselves, in part, by locking the editorials behind subscription.

[TomInTib]

9. They are dropping Times Select (or whatever it is called).

Bit them on the ass, is my guess.

[BlooInBloo]

10. I heard that 6 months ago.

[TomInTib]

11. They sent me a letter last week.

I could never remember my password, anyway (ex hacked into it and changed it).

[BlooInBloo]

12. Well, that'd be nice, if true. Reading only Krugman is unfortunate.

[TomInTib]

13. Oh, yeah, I forgot something.

The letter also informed me of a hefty increase in my subscription rate.

[BlooInBloo]

14. LOL!

[natrat]

5. wtf kick that scumbag out of this country

[Kutjara]

6. Nobody else wants him.

He ruined the Australian and British press, now he's well on the way to destroying what's left here.

[librechik]

7. if Murdoch can beat theTimes on truth, accuracy, and independence, good for him

:rofl:

Yeah, right!

Bad as the Times is, at least lying is not outright corporate policy--yet...

[Azathoth]

8. Once the WSJ becomes a Murdoch-style tabloid, it will be impossible for the NYT to compete

Hard news can't compete with celebrity sex scandals and exclusive interviews with Ann Coulter (in which she declares that 70% of Americans should be immediately executed for treason).

[blm]

15. News organizations have been undermined for the last two decades as a deliberate

strategy.

I can't even dare post the recent events at McClatchy that would chill any decent American citizen to the bone.