Investors want NY Times to sell Red Sox--NY Times

"The (hedge) funds are challenging the company’s investment decisions, including its commitment to the struggling newspaper industry beyond the flagship New York Times. Like many analysts, they see The Boston Globe and a group of 15 local papers as a drain on the company, which should, they argue, be focused on extracting the greatest possible advantage from the Times brand.

• The investors say they want the company to sell assets like those newspapers, a minority stake in the Boston Red Sox and the new corporate headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, using the proceeds to invest more aggressively in Internet companies.

Executives of the hedge funds would not state their criticism for publication, but a person close to them said: “I think it’s safe to say that the whole is less than the sum of its parts. It’s not clear how a newspaper, a baseball team and Midtown real estate add value to one another.”"....

• From NY Times by Richard Perez-Pena, "New Challenge to Times Board: Dissidents with Large Stake," 3/10/08. Via Poynter.org/Romenesko

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