• Editor & Publisher, Tuesday, June 12, 2007 11 AM

With various newspaper deals either done or in the offing, (Knight Ridder, Tribune and News Corp.'s move on Dow Jones) one Wall Street analyst runs down other potential targets. Alexia Quadrani of Bear Stearns figures that next on the block could be The New York Times Co.

"All signs point to the New York Times," she says, as it has angered shareholders and returned poor profit margins, but it has little debt and a strong brand name. And, despite the controlling Sulzberger family's reluctance to sell, the company's shares are trading at a big premium relative to its peers.

Still, Quadrani sees the possibility of a buyout as relatively slim and estimates the company is unlikely to get the kind of offer Rupert Murdoch made for Dow Jones. "Although The New York Times has a strong brand like The Wall Street Journal, it lacks Dow Jones' niche appeal and is therefore less likely, in our view, to fetch as high a premium as Dow Jones did -- which likely lessens the likeliness of changing the Sulzberger family's mind-set."

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