Howell Raines, former executive editor of the New York Times, is scared media mogul Rupert Murdoch's the Wall Street Journal will outperform the "old gray lady," forcing a sale to Murdock or "some other unsuitable purchaser.
Murdoch "will spend whatever it takes to undermine the Times's standing as America's leading general-interest paper," Raines wrote in the April 2008 Condé Nast Portfolio. He observed that the Journal has already started targeting the Times's strengths - "foreign news, the Washington/politics report, and the Sunday magazine.
That superlative may be up for the debate. The Wall Street Journal already outranks the New York Times on circulation by almost 1 million, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. USA Today tops them both.
Raines said his fear of a Murdock-led takeover is based on a conversation he had with Murdoch in 2002 during which Murdoch suggested the Times "go after hard business news and beat them [The Wall Street Journal] on their strength."
Raines wrote that the Murdoch-owned Journal will outperform the Times, encouraging members of the Sulzberger family trust, which wields majority control over the paper, to sell. He humbly asserted that said such a sale would be devastating for American society.
"There is no more important question in American journalism than the future of the Times," Raines argued, noting, "As a reader, I believe a Murdoch takeover of our last independent national newspaper would be a disaster for the trustworthy reporting on which our civil life depends."
