Tech & Biz

For Sale at the New York Times: The Front Page

by mtippett | January 5, 2009 at 12:34 pm

188 views | 10 Recommendations | 7 comments

The Times, they are a changin'...

The New York Times (NYT) is already trying to mortgage its headquarters and unload assets like its stake in the Boston Red Sox.
So what’s left to sell? The front page.

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Jarrett Martineau

at 12:53 on January 5th, 2009

Those loan payments aren't getting any cheaper — and there's only so much of their HQ that can be borrowed against. But is this really the solution?

Jordan Yerman

at 13:02 on January 5th, 2009

Seems like more of a Band-Aid solution, really. Unless that ad space is selling of millions of dollars per square inch.

adam hartung (not verified)

at 22:08 on January 5th, 2009

Talk about too little too late - running ads on the front page won't save the P&Ls of major newspapers - including the New York Times. People want news on the web, on their phones and are increasingly unwilling to wait on delayed news from a newspaper. Unless the New York Times Company changes its strategy fast, it will soon follow Tribune Company into bankruptcy. Read more at http://www.ThePhoenixPrinciple.com

Sanjay Jha

at 23:33 on January 5th, 2009

This is interesting development. They must be under lot of financial distress. I think New York Times Company really needs to change its strategy to overcome current downturn.

Paschen

at 17:58 on January 6th, 2009

I had no Idea. I would tend to agree with Jordan his comment here.

mtippett

at 21:15 on January 6th, 2009

From the Atlantic:

The paper’s credit crisis comes against a backdrop of ongoing and accelerating drops in circulation, massive cutbacks in advertising revenue, and the worst economic climate in almost 80 years. As of December, its stock had fallen so far that the entire company could theoretically be had for about $1 billion. The former Times executive editor Abe Rosenthal often said he couldn’t imagine a world without The Times. Perhaps we should start.

Scrivener

at 11:40 on January 9th, 2009

If NYT hadn't shrunk the size of its pages and the total page word count, this wouldn't be so bad -- as long as the ad is limited to that lower banner.

It's much less objectionable than what the Phila. Inquirer has started doing -- selling a lower-right box ad on its front page, putting the ad right up against news copy on two sides -- not just one, as in the NYT.

It's troubling... but it's got me to thinking:

What if I could find a reputable non-profit or public-interest- oriented sponsor and offer them a bottom-page banner on each page of my NowPublic channel? Not as intrusive as those ads that float over the copy.

Mike, what say you? If I can find the underwriter, how much do you need to make it happen?

It would have to be a public-interest non-profit foundation or something along those lines, however.... otherwise, NP would become a repository for "advertorials" and that would kill the site.

But if NYT can run lower page banner ads, maybe we should, too... as long as we keep out the "riff-raff."