The nominees proposed by Harbinger Capital Partners LLC and Firebrand Partners, which together hold a 4.9% stake in the Times, include Firebrand Partners founder Scott Galloway, Mayfield Fund media-focused VC Allen Morgan, former AOL executive Gregory Shove and Kohlberg & Co. co-founder James Kohlberg, Galloway said in a letter toting their "experties in capital allocation, Internet media and brand strategy." The investors seek the "redeployment of capital to expedite the acquisition of digital assets."

Nearly two years ago, the Times picked up About.com from Primedia Inc. for $410 million with the goal of "giving the company an alternate model of content creation," CD's Phineas Lambert wrote shortly after the deal. "But the most significant developments since the deal closed in March have come on other fronts, especially search engine optimization, where About is already giving Times Co.'s other online operations (more than 40 Web sites with more than 13 million users per month) a boost." The company at the time was close to moving all of its digital subsidiaries to one ad serving platform to enable the Times to sell across a combination of products to be able to offer better targeted advertising.

About.com has since acquired UCompareHealthCare.com, Calorie-Count weight loss tools and information provider, and ConsumerSearch.com. The Times has also launched an advertising partnership with Monster Worldwide, sold 50% of its Discovery Times Channel stake, sold its WQEW-AM New York radio station and its Broadcast Media Group to Oak Hill Capital Partners for $575 million. 

The Times also abandoned its paid content model late last year, two years after it began to put some columns and other "Times Select" content behind a firewall. Striking a paid-free balance has been tough for others as well. Pearson plc said Oct. 1 it planned to make the Financial Times site free and a similar move was thought to be in the offing for the Wall Street Journal under News Corp. and Rupert Murdoch, but the WSJ recently said its site would remain paid. The mixed bag illustrates the two sides of the argument and whether companies think they can draw more value from Web advertising versus paid subscriptions.
 

Ahead of the strategy shift, PR Week cited comments from the Times' executive director of community affairs and media relations, Diane McNulty, "that the new campaign will start this month to reposition the Web site as it moves forward on a free basis," the industry publication said.

Another asset the activists want the Times to do something with is a minority stake in the Boston Red Sox acquired in 2002. With a $724 million valuation, the Bosox is the third most valuable franchise in Major League Baseball, according to Forbes. The Times could seek to monetize that investment further in the digital arena. As Forbes points out, the Sox's majority owners, John Henry and Tom Werner, which took 80% of the comapny and the NESN network in 2002, bought a 50% stake in Nascar's Roush Racing to capitalize on a cross-marketing platform in 2006.  - Carolyn Murphy

See letter via PaidContent.org
See TheDeal.com story on NYTimes broadcast group sale
See CD story on NYTimes deal for About.com

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