Read it and weep

By Ed Lasky

Standard and Poor's says it may cut its rating on the NYT to "junk" status. So the company -- which continually degrades the quality of its editorial product with cutbacks and accelerating bias -- is lifting prices on its newspaper. In an era of increasingly free news and opinion, this "milking the cash cow" strategy may increase circulation revenues temporarily, but at the cost of readership decline. Prepare the obituary.

Tip for short-sellers: call everyone who still subscribes to the paper and tell them to call the company and threaten to cancel the paper. Immediate savings of 50% can result. Worked for me.