• by David Goetzl , March 11, 2010

The way he spoke Thursday, New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger would welcome Rupert Murdoch's threats -- so far, empty -- to pull content off Google search results. The Times content will remain there, he said, and if The Wall Street Journal and New York Post disappear, that could be his paper's gain.

Google serves as a type of point guard on the Web, greasing social-media activity and directing "enormous" traffic to NYT.com, Sulzberger said.

"We believe Google is a powerful part of [the] digital ecosystem," he said at the Bloomberg BusinessWeek Media Summit. "We work with them extremely well ... I don't have any antagonism to what they do. On the contrary, I think it's important to understand what they do, and work with them."

Sulzberger did not elaborate, but said his company shares ad revenue with the search leviathan and has a strong partnership.

He did rail against other Web sites that don't even link to NYT.com, but simply lift the content verbatim. "There is fair use, and then there's theft," he said.

News Corp. CEO Murdoch has said Google is profiting off his company's content with no compensation -- and has suggested that he would prevent the search engine from linking to articles from his publications. The Google News service indexes top stories on breaking topics with links to sites such as NYT.com and WSJ.com.

On a topic search, the Google engine can also direct people to newspaper sites.

Separately, Sulzberger -- who is chairman of the Times Co. -- said the ownership structure of the company isn't going to change, even with businesses such as The Boston Globe struggling.

"This is not a company that is going to be sold -- this is not a company that is going to be split apart," he said.

That assurance came in light of Mexican investor Carlos Slim, who owns over 6% of NYTCO and has been rumored to be eager to mount a takeover bid. Slim was just named the world's richest man by Forbes this week.

Sulzberger said the company is "delighted" to have him as an investor, and he is supportive of the company's "mission."

Sulzberger joined CEO Janet Robinson for a joint interview at the conference. Both reiterated bullishness on the Times' plans to introduce a pay model for its Web site in early 2011.

It's important to establish a dual revenue stream now. But later? "Will it be the right thing 10 years from now? I don't know," he said. "But the joy of this system is you have the ability to test and learn."

Robinson hinted that the company is still feeling the effects of the recession, but advertisers are looking to one-up competitors cutting back.

"People are recognizing that there is an opportunity, as the economy improves, for them to capture share," she said, adding: "There has to be a marketplace. Commerce has to take place; people have to get their messages out."

The Times has been on a cost-cutting initiative for some time -- most publicly through recent layoffs and buyouts in the newsroom -- but Sulzberger said there is no hiring freeze, noting a new add from The Washington Post this week.

"We have not stopped hiring -- we are being selective in our hiring," added Sulzberger.

Robinson did say that the staff size remains fluid. "We have to constantly evaluate that," she said. "It is dependent on the productivity of the company, and the profitability of the company going forward."

She said the stereotypical battles between newsroom and business operations at papers are somewhat muted with new economic realities.

"The communication between the news and the business sides within our company is probably the best it's ever been, in regard to a keen understanding of what really makes the company profitable," she said.

As the Times looks to develop ad models for new technologies, it has established a research and development lab high in its new headquarters building, where it introduces new prototypes and analytics capabilities to advertisers. But she said it is a bit early to predict ad models that will work for the Kindle, iPad and other e-readers.