Troubled Times

Not so long ago, an estimated 55,000 Canadian trees gave their lives for each Sunday edition of the New York Times. That was before North American newspapers went into "secular decline," the term Wall Street uses for industry sectors whose deteriorating fortunes are deemed irreversible.

In the most recent industry figures, released last week, circulation of the doorstopper Sunday Times plummeted another 9.2 per cent in the six months ended March 31, and the Times' weekday numbers slipped another 3.9 per cent. In both cases, the declines were sharper than the industry average.

The Times, which eclipsed the Times of London in the mid-20th century as the most influential paper in the English language, is a special case of ineptitude and complacency. Special because of the influence it does still exert – it ranks third in U.S. readership, after USA Today and the Wall Street Journal – and because the Ochs-Sulzberger family that has controlled the Times since the late 19th century is either unable or unwilling to fix a business model that is broken.

The parent New York Times Co. faces unprecedented turmoil as it heads into a U.S. economic slowdown that will worsen its already poor financial performance. Buckling to two U.S. hedge funds that have accumulated about 19 per cent of Times Co. stock, the Sulzbergers last month surrendered two board seats to the rampart-stormers, who will relentlessly agitate for cost cuts and asset sales to boost the value of their stock.

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