PrintNovember 19, 2007
NYT blog reports Murdoch mulled bid for Times
A blog at the New York Times called the DealBook is reporting that Rupert Murdoch considered making a run at the New York Times Company. The Times got this nugget from an interview Mr. Murdoch gave to one of his Austrailian papers.
Talking with The Telegraph's Terry McCrann, Mr. Murdoch said:
"Thus in conceeding the WSJ is a great brand he cannot stop himself from musing about its closest competitor the New York Times, not able to hide he'd actually ‘thought about it'. The New York Times was down to a market cap of $US2.6 billion. There must be assets in there to justify that, he muses."
A rather clever dig at a competitor I must say. There must be value in the NY Times -- somewhere -- I just can't see it. Murdoch is a master at playing his competitors in the public relations arena. No direct attacks, only carefully crafted back-handed compliments intended to psyche out his opponents.
Murdoch played the family that controlled the Wall Street Journal like a violin. Earlier this month he appointed his pick from the family to a board seat on News Corp that they got in the buyout. The Bancroft family missed the deadline to submit a candidate and so he selected Natalie Bancroft, a 27 year old opera singer who lives in Europe.
