Slim Loans NYT Co. $250M

(NEWSER) - Executives at Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. have been meeting with rival newspaper publishers about a consortium that would charge for web content. The publishers of the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times are all believed to have met with Jonathan Miller, the News Corp. officer overseeing digital strategy. But analysts remain skeptical that any payment scheme will make a significant dent in papers' balance sheets. More»

(NEWSER) - The New York Times Company has hired Goldman Sachs to handle a possible sale of the Boston Globe, the Globe reports. Goldman, which has also been trying to help the Times Co. unload its 17.5% stake in the Red Sox, has been telling prospective buyers it would accept bids after June 8, regardless of the outcome of the vote on pay and benefit cuts by the Globe's largest union. More»

(NEWSER) - Carlos Slim, the elusive Mexican billionaire who bailed out the New York Times to the tune of $250 million, is betting that the Times will be one of a very few major-league news organizations left standing when the current newspaper shakeout is over, Lawrence Wright writes in a profile of Slim in the New Yorker. That would put the paper in line with the business strategy that has made Slim one of the world's richest men: "putting his money on a monopoly." More»

(NEWSER) - The New York Times' ruling Ochs-Sulzberger family has a “habit of buying high and selling low,” writes John Gapper of the Financial Times. The clan sold the paper’s old Times Square building at a bargain price and bought back shares near their zenith. Now Arthur Sulzberger Jr., "the daffy fourth-generation family member who is publisher of the paper and chairs the company," may sell the Times, which would be perhaps the family's dumbest move yet. More»

Media mogul rebuffed after bid for 20% of company

(NEWSER) - Media mogul and DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen recently offered to buy nearly 20% of the struggling New York Times Company, Fortune reports. Geffen offered market price, currently $194 million, for the shares owned by Harbinger Capital Management. But the hedge fund rejected his offer as too low. He hasn't been the paper's only suitor. Google also "looked seriously" at buying the Times Co. several months ago, but passed. More»