Puppy Madness Strikes Times Newsroom

To grab headlines, commit or fall victim to murder at Harvard or Yale

(NEWSER) - The killing of Yale grad student Annie Le dominated headlines around the world, "but every murder is uniquely dramatic," Jack Shafer writes for Slate. Why this one? It involves a magic word. "Three murders at a Midwestern college equal one murder at Harvard or Yale," Shafer calculates. "If you kill somebody and want the press to go all Nancy Grace on your ass, make sure your victim attends or works at Harvard or Yale." 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»

USA Today also slammed—maybe

(NEWSER) - Media-to-media relations are starting to resemble reality shows, writes Ryan Tate in Gawker—maybe this will up readership. In a staff memo about circulation growth, the Wall Street Journal managing editor slammed the New York Times, writing “there are two measures of mortality, brain death and the day the NYT subscription ceases—the latter may well be long after the former." More»

Experts speculate Carlos Slim may be looking to buy or control media company

(NEWSER) - The world’s second-richest man, Mexican media tycoon Carlos Slim, has purchased a 6.4% stake in the New York Times Company. He says the buy was a purely financial—not strategic—move, but analysts say he may be positioning himself to make a play for the Gray Lady, reports Bloomberg. A Slim spokesman describes the struggling newspaper company as a “an attractive value,” adding, "The door is always open to assess whether we will buy more.'' More»

Do we have to read about the VP's weight in every dispatch?

(NEWSER) - Al Gore is having an astonishing political second act, leading the charge to save the planet, but the supercilious writers at the New York Times can't resist condescending to him, observes playwright Jon Robin Baitz, doing a little reverse reviewing in his blog. TheTimes, he argues, displays its "allergy to earnestness" in snide references to Gore's girth and Hollywood gloss. More»