CNN Money’s Paul La Monica thinks it is time for New York Times, the Gray Lady of Journalism to join the merge-or-be-purged trend sweeping across old media. Given the severe under-performance of NYT stock, well, he is right.
The New York Times Co. chief executive officer Janet Robinson has different ideas and wants to do a digital nip-and-tuck. Robinson, and the company are interested in more online investments, and acquisitions. They have stakes in Indeed and Federated Media, for example.
The paper, however has a terrible record. Any remember the JV/investment in The Street.com. That did not work out too well. How about, the latest move of putting its top columnist behind a paid firewall and calling it Times Select?
Times Select has generated just $6 million in sales so far, a rounding error for a company expected to post $3.5 billion in annual revenue this year.
4 comments so far
9:31 AM PT
Some time ago the NYT was advertising for a “Futurist” - http://www.paidcontent.org/jobs/week200603_26.shtml#054347 - If they’ve filled the position, I’d say that whomever is in the position has their hands full.
10:11 AM PT
First item on the list would be to make the site more interactive.
Allow people to discuss, rate, recommend articles and discuss topics.
Why not even allow users to submit reviews and editorials with quality reviews and editorials being highlighted by an online editor.
3:47 PM PT
A newspaper has to differentiate itself with editorial content and news relevant to a critical mass of consumers. NYTimes is one of the few newspapers doing this (apart from WPO and WSJ). It cannot be compared with other newspapers which are usually poor in editorial content/news or both.
Given the quality of content compared to competitors, I don’t mind paying…
I may be a minority, but I think that an ad-supported free NYTimes site where you have to wade through and get distracted by ads is a huge turnoff.
6:08 PM PT
Their joint venture/investment in thestreet.com would have worked out just fine if they had some patience. Instead they bought high and sold low.
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