Welcome Web wunderkind Marc Andreessen to the deathwatch!

In a savage post on his blog, the Netscape co-founder announces “I hereby inaugurate my New York Times Deathwatch, which will continue until the last Sulzberger has left the building.”

The diatribe was touched off by the announcement that arch-conservative Bill Kristol will become a Times columnist, but Andreessen has problems with the whole Times company, and he lists them with withering eloquence:

• Total quarterly revenues fell 1.7% compared to Q4 2006, adjusting for an additional week in the 2006 quarter;
• Ad revenue in December was off 25%
• Classified advertising fell off the table
• Circulation continues to decline at the NYT-owned Boston Globe – 7% in the last year;
• The Times’ regional papers are also suffering;
• Hedge funds are pressuring the Sulzbergers to sell;
• The board of directors knows nothing about publishing (this one is particularly funny).

Meanwhile, Dan Kennedy at The Guardian muses on the possibility that Google could buy the New York Times Co. It isn’t gonna happen, but it’s fun to speculate.

The Financial Times has all the gory financial details.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 8:34 am and is filed under Fake News, Paywalls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.