TIMES IN CRISIS; SEEKS EXPERT HELP WITH SHAREHOLDER REVOLT (Jayson Blair, Judith Miller scandals fal

NY POST ^ | April 27, 2006 | JANET WHITMAN

[Liz]

Facing shareholder dissent and getting flak for bloated executive pay deals, The New York Times is frantically searching for crisis p.r. experts as the company gears up for a public battle over the future of the newspaper giant.

Chairman Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr. and other top management have been criticized for putting off the concerns of Morgan Stanley portfolio manager Hassan Elmasry and for a share price that's plummeted 50 percent since 2002.

Soon after Morgan's attack last week on The Times, the publisher's spokeswoman, Catherine Mathis, was phoning Knight Ridder spokesman Polk Laffoon seeking advice, sources familiar with the matter said.

In addition to fallout from the Jayson Blair scandal and Judith Miller's controversial imprisonment, The Times' business has been suffering.

The paper lost nearly 20 percent of its readers in the five boroughs between 2001 and 2004, as it pushed to reinvent itself as a national publication. Its daily circulation in New York City fell to 260,526 copies from 320,682.

Despite the sagging stock performance and job cuts across the company, Sulzberger and CEO Janet Robinson were awarded hefty payouts. Robinson's 2005 restricted stock award jumped nearly fivefold from a year earlier to roughly $2 million. Sulzberger's stock award nearly doubled to $817,500.

Morgan Stanley's investment arm, a longtime shareholder of The Times with a 5 percent stake, blasted management for the executive compensation and for failing to address the company's woeful stock price. It also called for an end to The Times' two-tier stock system, which it said "fosters a lack of accountability."

[Right Wing Assault]

Maybe China can buy them out.

In a lot of ways, they already have.

Ooh! Good one!

[Right Wing Assault]

"I stand here today in my cool new suit and tie (don't I look sharp?!) to tell you there is no lies in the NYT. Just like when I was in Iraq, even though you could see and hear those tanks in Baghdad, there were no tanks in Baghdad. So I say again, you are not seeing lies in the NYT. If you do not agree, you are an infidel and we do not let infidels live. We kill them, crush them, drive them out, and even injure them severely!"

[george76]

"investors are clearly disgruntled, as highlighted by the 28 percent withhold vote for the election of four directors at the company's annual meeting last week...

[mkjessup]

LMAO, your quotation from Baghdad Bob is MUCH more true-to-form than mine, my hat is off to you! ;)

The NYT and Baghdad Bob, a match truly "meant to be". LOL

[george76]

[Liz]

The Desperation kinda gets to you, eh?

[petercooper]

2 year chart is even better to drive the DUmmies wild.

[rvoitier]

The old gray mare ain't what she used to be.

I'm deeply saddened. NOT!

[RJL]

You have a good point. Would honestly love to see an interview of Sulzberger giving his impression of the mid-western hicks, and southern rednecks. His bigotry would be quite revealing.

If we're lucky maybe Pinch would bring his moose head hand puppet!

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks I posted the one year chart and pinged you while hoping you would reply with the two year chart.

[Cheburashka]

They don't know squat about "fly over country".
---
What's there to know?

"Hey, you! You live in flyover country. You're stupid. Buying the New York Times won't make you smart, but it will make you smartER."

See, the ad campaign practically writes itself.

[Right Wing Assault]

LOL to you, too! He fits right in!

[Right Wing Assault]

Well, I had more time to think about it. Where have I been. I never even saw that picture of Bob before!

[mkjessup]

Well, I had more time to think about it. Where have I been. I never even saw that picture of Bob before!

That picture was from when Bob was consulting for Terry McAwful when he was still Chairman of the DNC, I remember that ad campaign "I tell you, there are NO Republicans winning in these midterm 2002 elections, this will be the greatest night for the Democratic Party since President McGovern beat Nixon in '72!!!"

[Right Wing Assault]

"I tell you, there are NO Republicans winning in these midterm 2002 elections, this will be the greatest night for the Democratic Party since President McGovern beat Nixon in '72!!!"

That's our Bob!