Trump Era Has Been Great News for New York Times Company’s Shareholders: New at Reason

The Trump era sure has been good for shareholders in what the president likes to call the “failing New York Times.”

The New York Times Company stock went to $26.60 last week from $11.05 on Election Day 2016, according to Yahoo Finance’s data, which adjusts for reinvested dividends. That’s an increase of $15.55 a share. The stock hit a 52-week high last week.

The single biggest winner on that climb appears to be the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu. According to The New York Times Company’s 2018 proxy statement, Slim controlled 27,191,500 shares of The New York Times Company Class A Common Stock as of February 15, 2018. Do the math, and Slim would have a paper profit of $422,827,825 on his Times investment since Election Day, though he has sold some shares between February and today. The Ochs-Sulzberger family descendants that control the Times Company also made some money on paper, though less than Slim, since the Ochs-Sulzberger family owns about a 9% economic interest in the Times Company, compared to Slim’s 16.7%, according to the proxy statement.

The “Trump Bump” has been good for Carlos Slim and the Ochs-Sulzberger family’s stock price. Whether it is good for the Times journalism, and whether it’s a sustainable long-term growth strategy for the Times Company, are different questions, however, writes Ira Stoll.

View this article.