Friday, September 26, 2008

New York Times Heading South?

And so the fate of the country’s (and perhaps the world’s) most esteemed journalistic institution will be determined, in part, by a fortune that was made a half-century ago in the coal mines of Kentucky and on the highways of Alabama by a man who carried a sidearm into union drives and never met a Republican he didn’t like. It’s an irony fit for the pages of the New York Times.

And who is that man?
That would be John Harbert III, and now his son, Raymond Harbert, is the owner of a hedge fund called Harbinger Capital Partners, and now own 20% share of the New York Times. That makes them the largest shareholder of the Times next to the Sulzberger family, which founded the paper and have run it since it's inception.
How ironic will it be that the Old Gray Lady may actually be taken over by the same gun toting, bible clinging, conservative values people that they so despise.
I wish it would happen, if nothing else then to see Maureen Dowd have to clean out her desk and post a resume on Monster dot com.
Let me add this quote from New York University marketing professor named Scott Galloway, who is working on the Harberts on some of the deal.
“Let me be clear: I think the newspaper business is a shitty business,” Galloway tells me, in his spartan little office at Harbert Management during an interview that took place before he became actively involved with the company. “The Sacramento Bee, the Chicago Tribune—I think a lot of those newspapers are fucked.” Not the Times, however: “The New York Times is like Yahoo with content,” Galloway says.

The article is long but well worth reading, and don't forget--y'all come back again, ya hear.

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