Murdoch Sees Opportunity in NYT's Troubles

First the Journal and next the New York Times? The Economist takes a look at Rupert Murdoch's "ever-stronger" ambition to acquire the Times, as laid out in a new biography, The Man Who Owns the News, by Newser founder Michael Wolff. Murdoch views the Times as his "favorite train wreck," the book says.

Wolff has watched Murdoch "go through the numbers, plot out a Times merger with the Journal’s backroom operations,” he writes. “He has conjured, too, how in Murdoch style, he might convince the Sulzbergers to let him in, if he promises to leave Arthur in charge—and how he could then make Arthur his puppet.” The Economist notes that the Sulzbergers have been "unwaveringly loyal" to Arthur so far, but that he is "running out of time" to find a business model to make enough money with the paper's quality website. (More Arthur Sulzberger Jr. stories.)