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“The Times is not for sale,” New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. wrote in a memo to staff Wednesday evening. “Wednesday’s statement was released shortly after Mr. Sulzberger held a closed-door meeting with family members,” Christine Haughney reports.
Dylan Byers has the whole memo, which follows increasing speculation that the Sulzberger-Ochs family might be tempted to follow the lead of the Washington, D.C. Graham family and sell their newspaper.
“It’s sad to see a great American newspaper family like the Grahams depart from The Post, a publication for which we at The Times have much affection and common ground,” Sulzberger writes in his memo.
While The Times will continue to compete with them for the big story, we hope for the sake of quality journalism and an informed citizenry that Jeff Bezos will continue the tradition of excellence that the Grahams achieved in their eight decades of stewardship.
New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s shadow hangs over all such talk, even though Hizzoner, too, has sort of said he’s not interested.
“Of course, it’s possible that someday Bloomberg will make the Ochs-Sulzberger family an offer it can’t refuse (Reuters reports Bezos paid more than four times what the Post is worth),” New York’s Margaret Hartmann writes. “But for the time being Bloomberg is said to prefer the Financial Times, if he does in fact decide to expand his media empire.”
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