Rupert Murdoch dreams of owning The New York Times

Filed under: New York Times'A' (NYT), News Corp'B' (NWS)

Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp (NYSE: NWS) and king of all he surveys, wants to buy The New York Times. At least that is what he told Vanity Fair according to a Reuters report.

It is hard to see why Murdoch would even bother to dream that dream. Based on the most recent quarterly earnings report and monthly figures reported by The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT), the paper probably loses money when the results of its online business are backed out. If ad lineage at the print product keeps falling, and it will, even NYTimes.com will not be able to save the bottom line.

While The New York Times is a trophy, it would almost certainly be an expensive one. The parent company has a market cap of about $2 billion, and the paper might go for more than that because of its unique position as the most respected news outl