Via Romenesko, a new Boston Herald analysis shows that since taking over the paper in 1997, New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. has spent $3 billion of the company’s money buying back stock from its shareholders:
The famous Sulzberger dynasty is quietly tightening its financial grip on the New York Times and the Boston Globe, a new analysis shows.
And it’s using shareholders’ cash, instead of its own, to do it.
A Herald examination of Times financial filings shows that since Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger Jr. took over as chairman in 1997, The New York Times Co. has bought up almost one-third of the stock held by outsiders. […]
You’d expect such largesse at least to keep the share price aloft, right?
Actually, since [Sulzberger] took over the company, it’s fallen by nearly a fifth.
Washington Post shares, over the same period: up 69 percent. […]
[Sulzberger], now aged 54, clearly enjoys his Manhattan status atop the Times.
But he can hardly enjoy the mounting criticism he has endured since stepping into his father’s shoes.
Lowlights of his nine-year reign: Jayson Blair, Judith Miller and now a collapsing stock price. Taking the Times private could at least remove some of his problems from public view.
As long as Arthur “My Apologies” Sulzberger is publisher, expect that list of lowlights to keep getting longer.