Donald Trump wants The New York Times
Can the billionaire buy his way into ownership of the respected newspaper company?
Billionaire Donald Trump wants it known that he really, really wants to buy The New York Times (NYT) even though the paper is not for sale -- and even if it were, the Sulzberger family, which has owned it for more than a century, probably would never sell it to him in a billion years.
Shares of the company, which also owns the Boston Globe, were barely budging on the news, indicating that Wall Street isn't holding its breath for a deal to happen. A spokesperson for the Times couldn't immediately be reached.
It's unclear exactly how much progress, if any, Trump has made in buying the newspaper company. New York magazine, which broke the story, says "Trump has engaged in more than one meeting to discuss how he might buy the Grey Lady." If Trump does make a credible offer for the paper, the company's board of directors would have a fiduciary duty to consider it.
Trump has had a contentious relationship with the company's flagship newspaper for years. In 2011, he lost a libel case against Tim O'Brien, a former reporter and editor for the paper, who argued in a book that the 56-year-old wasn't really a billionaire. O'Brien, now with The Huffington Post, couldn't immediately be reached. Many at the paper, including columnist Gail Collins, have mocked Trump's claims that President Obama may not have been born in the United States.
If Trump is successful -- and that's a big if -- he would have a tough time convincing employees and advertisers that he wouldn't use the paper to promote his own political agenda. In fact, some newspapers around the country have been snapped up by wealthy business owners with their own motives. Real-estate developer Doug Manchester, for example, bought the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2011 and turned the paper into what Media Matters for America calls "a corporate shill."
Trump's interest comes at a tough moment for The New York Times, which has recently offered buyouts to newsroom staff to cut costs as it struggles to reinvent itself in the digital age. The deadline for accepting these offers is Thursday, according to the paper. Wall Street isn't expecting the struggles to end anytime soon. Revenue in the December quarter is expected to fall 11%, according to analysts' estimates. Profit is expected to be 31 cents, down from 45 cents a year earlier.
Wall Street sees better times ahead for the venerable publisher, whose digital strategy has gained traction. The average 52-week price target on the stock is $9.58. about 10% higher than where it currently trades. Shares of the publisher have surged more than 13% over the past year.
--Jonathan Berr does not own shares of the listed stocks. Follow him on Twitter @jdberr
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The New York Times is already right wing enough. Must we really see wack added to it? How many "news" outlets do the rightside of assinine need to dominate before they convince more of their low-information voters to elect them back into the White House?
Rightwing media already controls 93% of the airwaves! Must we allow Trump to taint our nation with even more? Aren't the rural parts of our nation already saturated with Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, and the rest of the rightie hate-merchants, who would rather see this nation become a Banana Republic than to ever work together with Liberals to make this nation what it used to be, before Reagan found out that talk of war could gain him more votes in elections?
Isn't war what Rush, and Michael , and Glenn Beck propose we do now, with the assault weapons? Hide in our basements with our bibles! Open fire on each other? Open fire on Iran! Hell, the fear they push almost got them a Romney, who prefers Chinese labor over our own American labor elected? Due to rural and red state radio and FOX Entertainment News, they seek to brain-wash the poorest states, with the lowest educational standards to blame it on public schools, while Romney invests 60 million dollars into for-profit Charter Schools, that have proven to have worse educational results, with fewer teachers, and more profits taken out of the school systems, for the sake of his family?
How much more Tea Party does this nation deserve, for the sake of the Waltons, who control 42% of our national wealth?
Isn't it time to wonder why Republicans swear fealty to Grover Norquist, bow to Rush Limbaugh, and pass policies pushed by oil and mining mogul Koch Brothers, AT&T Alec Corporations, and Sheldon Adelson, who was hoping he could stop the investigations into his bribing of foreign officials, in order to get his casinos built in China? And wasn't Romney standing next to him, jumping at the chance to get in on the ground floor of wrecking the American economy by building 14 cent an hour manufacturing plants in mainland China, and then sending our manufacturing plants over there for them to use?
These are the folks the Republicans salute, when they can't make enough in wages, and have to get federal and state healthcare, because the companies refuse to work them full-time, thereby not having to provide health coverage? Look at Wal-Mart! Look at Romney's Staples, who just put out the ad proclaiming they are going to hire 45,000 seasonal workers. It sounds good, but why not work the ones full-time, already on the payroll? Every time I enter the local Romney BestBuy, there are always new workers, never there long enough to gain benefits, just seasonal ones, who never qualify for benefits......
Now, Trump wants to take the New York Times and have it proclaim Obama is a Kenyan from outer space, too?
Idiots! The New York Times will just become another Fox Tabloid with the Trump in charge....Aliens, popping out of every corner of our natuion! Grab yhour assault weapons, boys! We have aliens to hunt now. Just what this nation needs......NOT!
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