Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Superb Results at the New York Times

The flagship paper for New York City - The New York Post reports results concerning its second rate competitor that raise the spirits on this overcast day. While the Post's circulation within the five boroughs has increased by by some 29% over the period '01-'04 the NYT's circulation for the same area dropped a handsome 18.7%. The Time's ill thought and poorly executed plan to go "national" has increased its total circulation by a whopping .5% (that's half of one per cent).

What percentage of the costs associated with going national might that .5% increase cover? My bet is that it covers much less than its equivalent - perhaps .005% of the additional cost.

It is good to know that Sulzberger and Keller's business acumen is as substantial as their sense of civic duty. May they and every NYT shareholder reap all that they have sown.

77 comments:

buddy larsen said...

Malkin has a sweeet visual aid:

buddy larsen said...

Love to see Rupert Murdoch start buying up the busted stock--that would be the end of the hard-left. Its head would explode. After mopping the rather small mess, we'd have America back again, in all her radiant glory!
\;-D

buddy larsen said...

Delivered by an Ozzie--what a nice bit of Anglospheric glue.

(That's a geographic 'anglosphere', Mark--not a racial one.)

Eric said...

I saw that graph the 1st time "American Digest" pointed it out.

Impressive. The other link at Malkins shows similar woes for nearly all those publishers.

I think we are witnessing a near perfect storm of bad business decisions, bad reporting, and the availablility of alternatives that people are obviously taking advantage of.

You'd figure that with the Stock Market at over 11,000 after 4 years, that these stocks would have followed the upward trend. The money bags have spoken. I'm not even sure in 5 years there will be a NY Times.

Rick Ballard said...

Buddy,

The Sulzbergers control the Times through ownership of Class B stock - the class that gets to elect the board of directors. Owning class A buys a ticket for the ride conducted by Paunch as designated idiot representative of the Sulzbergers. Murdoch does the same thing and there is no way he would touch the A stock while Paunch was in the saddle.

The company has a higher breakup value than the current stock price and firing the dimwitted duo of Paunch and Billy would (IMO) result in a price jump of at least 50%. I'm betting that the Sulzbergers will pull the plug on Paunch within a year or so. If I were investing in equities I might look at some long call options (if they exist).

MeaninglessHotAir said...

Vanderleun opines on the den of sweetness and light that is today's New York Times. Worth a read.

Barry Dauphin said...

And they were hoping for the cha-ching sounds when they put Krugman and Dowd on a pay per view basis. Right now to make money on pay per view, they'll have to get Krugman and Dowd to mud wrestle nude on the web! (I'd bet on MoDo in that one).

Specter said...

Myabe their readership is sinking because they don't carry articles like this:

Abramoff-linked probe focuses on 5 lawmakers

And who are those 5 you ask.

Law-enforcement authorities and others said the investigation's opening phase is scrutinizing Sens. Conrad Burns, Montana Republican; Byron L. Dorgan, North Dakota Democrat; and Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, along with Reps. J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Republican, and Bob Ney, Ohio Republican.

Now I wonder why the NYT didn't carry this?

Rick Ballard said...

Barry,

I'll send you $20 if you promise never to raise Krugman/Dowd nude mudwrestling again. I just ate a nice lunch and am having trouble keeping it down.

Specter,

This is why hurling a boomerang is tricky business. Best not to close your eyes after throwing.

Anonymous said...

rick:

Krugman/Dowd nude mudwrestling

In Tijuana by, oh, 2010.

Barry Dauphin said...

Rick,

Hey, it's sounds like I've now got a good business plan. If only the NYT did.

buddy larsen said...

"Vea Los Columnistas Nudos!"

Rick Ballard said...

You meant

"Vea Los Columnistas Communista Nudos!"

right?

Anonymous said...

Actually, it is:

Vea Los Columnistas Comunistas Desnudos

/Pedantry

buddy larsen said...

"Vea Los Combatos En El Lodo!"

"Compre Su Boletos Aqui-Solamente 10 Pesos!

Doug said...

It's sad to see such a Robust Celebration of Schadenfreud.
What will Mark think of you mean-spirited folk?

buddy larsen said...

"Oiga Las Commentos de las dos Feas Malas, La Pelosi y La Boxero!"

Doug said...

Sorry, just missed it.

Doug said...

Pelosi the Box?

Doug said...

Still working on Rick's lunchtime entertainment.

Doug said...

Pelosi's Box.

buddy larsen said...

"...there won't be any Republicans left to champion in about a year."

"Vea el idiota excesivo con sus manos sobre sus ojos!"

Anonymous said...

And then by 2012:

¡Dowd y Krugman hoy en rebaja - solo cinco pesos!

buddy larsen said...

Doug--'Boxer' sorry.

Doug said...

Boxer's Box?

Doug said...

Remember,
You crowned me the
King of De elevation!
I be de King.

buddy larsen said...

"Rebajada Cinco Pesos (o qual qué usted tiene en su bolsos pantalones)!"

Doug said...

...but the King can't match the Bud's fluency.

Syl said...

Bush's secret spying on Americans

Lie.

Bush's secret spying on al Qaeda.

Doug said...

...and "US Persons" who make a habit of talking to them on the phone.
AKA "Agents."

buddy larsen said...

Doug my nickname among the Corpovenistas was 'neandertal'--which i thought was because I was bigger than most of them--until I found out it was my Spanish. Me try talk good, but me no use 'em past and future.

buddy larsen said...

I can hear Mark now, as they're loading him into the ambulance this November "No, no, you don't understand, Bush is the devil,THE DEVIL!!!"

Specter said...

LOL Mark,

It's about time you finally made the connection. I mean how much money did CodePink give to the "freedom fighters" in Fallujah. And then the give the Pink Medal to Murtha. Remember the "associative principle" from your early days in math? Quid Pro Quo.

buddy larsen said...

Oh, that's wrong--none of you guys wear turbans yet.

Doug said...

My nick to one friend in College was "Pithecanthropus,"
(something to do with his PERCEPTION of the shape of my skull}
We can have a Stone Age Reunion.

Doug said...

"I can see how you'd think that since you can't discern the difference between Democrats and Al Qaeda."
We are keeping note of the ever decreasing amount.

buddy larsen said...

not much more than cosmetic, even at this point--and the election is yet many moons away.

Doug said...

"
...many listeners in our day and age have lost sight--not just of truth vs. relative truth, or objective vs. subjective truth--but of any truth-falsehood distinction outside of their own perceptions. So the new definition of a lie has become: something that fooled me. Something that I heard and thought was true, and then discovered wasn't true. It made me angry to be jerked around like that. So it's a lie.
"

Neo via Seneca the Younger

Doug said...

Is it just me, or have I noted fewer "Hat Tips" starting about the time after the launch of PJ Media?
Are we becoming more like "them?"

flenser said...

specter

You have to understand the "associative principle" in the same way mark does.

If the talking points of the Democratic party are the same as those of Al Queda, that is simply coincidence. It's questioning their patriotism to note that they are saying something objectionable.

But if Alito was a member of some group, one of whose other members once said something stupid, it is exactly the same as if Alito said it himself. Even though he did not.

In other words, the Dem's must not be held accountable for what they have actually said, but Alito must be held accountable for things he did not say.

It all makes perfect sense when you are a Democrat, apparently.

buddy larsen said...

Monobrow better than hammer n sickle branded on butt, me say.

buddy larsen said...

Mmaajjoorriittiieess???

flenser said...

When a majority of Americans express the same wishes as a majority of Iraqis and say let's get out of Iraq that makes us all Al Qaeda?

When that day comes, get back to me. In the meantime remember that this is not a free forum for you to spread your lies.

Specter said...

Mark,

Post your source so we can once again tear it apart.,....

buddy larsen said...

He's probably got a push-poll from somewhere--what you want to see is the mechanics of the poll--who, when, where--and...the...questions.

I have a poll, took it at the grocery store yesterday in Dripping Springs (home of Edie of FoxFriends, and Lance Armstrong), and 100% love Bush and hate Mark.

buddy larsen said...

No, go watch "SpongeBob" and pretend you have a senator with that much gravitas.

Syl said...

The only poll that says such a thing was commissioned by the British military. It was conducted by students at a university in Iraq. The underlying data was not released.

It's the poll Murtha/pelosi et al cite.

They know it's dishonest, so do the moonbats who keep citing it. Doesn't matter to them.

Doug said...

Has Mark ever responded directly to any point or citation made here?

Rick Ballard said...

I don't think his algorithm has been upgraded to allow for responses, Doug. You know how Soros is about upgrades.

flenser said...

doug

Thats kinda the definition of a troll, isn't it?

If you ask a question, they prefer not to respond. They want you to dance to their tune.

I ran into a "Bush Lied" fanatic at FPM once. I asked him, if Bush lied aout the reasons for the war, what are the "real reasons"? He refused to respond, over a period of months. Which makes sense if he was a paid disruptor.

Unknown said...

mark:

The majority of Iraqis want to have a better future. You want them to fail.

The majority of Americans want to know who AlQaida is talking to in the US. You want AlQaida to be left alone.


You are sad, really you are. I pity you.

flenser said...

peter

I had not realized Hagel was so loopy. It seems that all we need to do is sit down and talk with the Iranians.

Why didn't that idiot Bush think of that?

Hagel seems unaware that we have been in an undeclared war with Iran for the past thirty years. I guess the Dem's don't have all the dumb senators.

Unknown said...

mark called us wingnuts.

I checked out peter's link and it was very educational.....When Zarqawi is feeling down he should go visit those sites. The dhimmitude is alive and well.


mark actually thinks that by quoting Hagel to us he scared us..

The truth is Hagel is McCain jr. and I do not give a rat's ass what he says.

But mark spoke truth to the wingnuts.

I'd rather be a wingnut than a traitor.

I'd rather be a wingnut than pander to Islamofascists in the hopes that I can save my sorry behind.

Oh but I forgot there are no Islamofascists... it is all part of George's plot and once he and the big bad Republicans are gone the world will be a happy place of loonies and terrorists dancing through fields of laughing flowers.

Sounds like paradise.

Unknown said...

Well if Carter actually had the balls to deal with these people 30 years ago, the world would not have to wonder if some insane mullah is going to wipe Israel from the map and manage to take a significant segment of the population of the Middle East with them.

buddy larsen said...

Terrye, 'laughing flowers', love it, it tickles.

flenser said...

I'd rather be a wingnut than a traitor.

Simon & Garfunkel, right?

"If I could, I surely would."

buddy larsen said...

Didn't they do "Mark's Song",

Hello, dorkness, my old friend....?

Doug said...

"People typing without writing,"

buddy larsen said...

Because you live here?

buddy larsen said...

I thought you were against 'cherry-picking', anyway, Mark.

Considering the number of polls, are you cherry-picking the topics which are to be or not to be 'cherry-picked' within?

buddy larsen said...

HEY DAMMIT, I'm YEARS and YEARS short of 62...well a few anyway. ok, three. BUT, that's three, it ain't two, it ain't one, and I ain't there yet.

buddy larsen said...

Mark, ok, that's apretty damning poll. But there's tons of others that come to precisely opposite conclusions. Should I go a-huntin', or will you be a nice guy and concede my point?

buddy larsen said...

Odd how well the dinar and the stock markets and the elections, new business start-ups, real-estate prices, and weddings, birthrates, gdp, and public health are all moving sharply upwards and have been, without a blip, since the re-election of Bush.

Same phenomenon in markets all over the world, exceptionally in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and most of Africa--not to mention Asia, the Mideast, and the USA.

Do billions of people 'get' Kerry, or do they 'get' Bush, or, heh-heh, "both"?

Gad, Mark, you have a memory like a steel trap--that was when Terrye said she was a cross between Meryl Streep and Ma Kettle, and I was Dagwood and a Triceratops, on a RogerSimon thread six months ago. It's too damn bad you're a Communist Lunatic, your brain could do some good for humanity.

buddy larsen said...

Yep, the rest of the world is getting wealthier, and closing the gap with the USA.

A problem? So, what do want, Mark, more famine and pestilence on foreign shores, to keep Uncle Sam way up on top?

As far as an overheated housing boom settling down to sustainable rates, won't that help the young folks trying to get started? You know, your constituency, the younger and/or minority lower rungs of the net-worth ladder? If you *personally* missed the top of the boom, well, Blame Bush.

Or we could have a Politburo set all prices and values. That always works well.

Looks-wise, I believe George Lindsey--"Goober" on the Andy Griffith Show--replaced Jim "Kerry-lookalike" Nabors?

No, I'm more of an Edgar Buchanan in "The Wild Bunch", or even a less-sleek Ernest Borgnine.

But we can't all be Chevy Chase or William Hurt, those High-Aryan, SS-looking types.

buddy larsen said...

Buscemi stole "Fargo".

buddy larsen said...

"Blood Simple"
was great--their first--filmed rat cheer in Austin.

Oh, the polls, the polls, let's see, try the latest Fox Opinion Dynamics, or hie thee to your hometown Chicago Tribune morgue, or any of a vast number of websites that report a vast number of polls that contradict those little dried-out boogers you've got stored under your keyboard.

buddy larsen said...

Well, I haven't 'searched', I just 'know'. I watch 'news' and 'read' stuff.

Gimme a hint on Walsh, oh, exalted Lebensborn one, please?

buddy larsen said...

The mechanic from "Bonnie & Clyde" ?

The "...dirt in the fuel line--I just blowed it away" guy?

Oh, that does it, now i'm MAD!

buddy larsen said...

Ya doesn't hafta BE one to help one, you can be a 'useful idiot'--or, in your case, a 'useless idiot'.

Besides, they're the same thing with different labels.

But take back Emmet Walsh and i'll take back Communist.

buddy larsen said...

Odd that he and his bride's honeymoon trip was to the same place at the same time as the enemy delegation--which meant he could 'do private diplomacy' for us.

buddy larsen said...

Maybe they all grinned sheepishly.

buddy larsen said...

Yeh, he'd've been a joke if the enemy hadn't been raising fresh divisions on the strength of his Peace Work.

We don't hang people, we elect 'em lifetime senator & presidential candidate.

If you put it in a novel, no one would buy it.

buddy larsen said...

Sad, hell--as Peter says, Act III of the Manchurian Candidate ain't over yet by a long shot.

buddy larsen said...

That nearly every soul who knows him either distrusts him to the max, or is on his payroll, is pretty telling.

buddy larsen said...

Mark, your defense of Kerry--"Nothing more to be said, you guys are pathetic"--is so massively powerful, i'm fricken stunned.

buddy larsen said...

...said Chevy Chase, in his best George Patton voice.

buddy larsen said...

...prompting Chevy/george to run madly around the room scraping up the waitresses tips before they could get them, then to leap out the window, and head toward the next bar.