If the Gray Lady didn't have enough problems battling industrywide woes, now she has Rupert Murdoch to worry about.
The media billionaire has made no secret of his desire to take aim at the New York Times once his News Corp. acquires Dow Jones & Co. and its flagship Wall Street Journal in a $5-billion deal expected to close this fall.
Murdoch said during an earnings conference call last week that he wanted the financial newspaper to have "more coverage of national, international and nonbusiness news . . . all to better compete with the New York Times and other national newspapers."
In private, Murdoch has been more blunt.
"Rupert thinks the Times is vulnerable," a longtime senior executive said. "He's going to go after them."
Like other newspapers across the country, the Times has been tightening its belt and has seen its stock price languish as readers and advertisers migrate to the Web. Nonetheless, it has fared better than other publications, retaining much of its circulation and advertising by remaining the essential newspaper of the East Coast elite.
So where does Murdoch believe the Times is vulnerable?
At a meeting early last week News Corp. executives mulled over that question but have yet to form a definitive plan.
Murdoch has publicly signaled he will beef up editorial coverage, adding four pages to the paper and hiring more staff in Europe and Asia. Murdoch also is thinking about expanding the Journal's franchise on global financial news.
But several current and former employees said they thought Murdoch was coyly talking up what he might do to the news operation to draw attention away from his more immediate plan -- an attack on the Times' business side.
"I would expect that he would be very aggressive on ad rates, and I would also predict that he would be very aggressive on cover price, whether it's home delivery or newsstand," said Ken Chandler, whose 29 years under Murdoch included stints as publisher of the New York Post and editor of the Boston Herald.
Indeed, some observers expect Murdoch to leave the newsroom more or less alone for some time.
"The biggest change will be not in editorial but in sales," said Andrew Swinand, president of ad agency Starcom Worldwide.
Analysts see Murdoch cutting rates and the newsstand cost, which rose last month to $1.50 from $1, even though he declared during the conference call that he would not engage in "any price war."
