New York Times Will Win in the Long Run

Doctor says there is a place in the future for some newspapers, and few publishers are as well positioned as the Times to get to that place. He sees publishers morphing into companies whose core competence is serving other businesses with content rather than serving consumers directly.

"They're syndicating their content," he says. "They're syndicating their advertising. They're partnering in all kinds of ways. That will supply certain levels of revenue. How much or how quickly they'll be able to ramp it up no one really knows."

Given the uncertainty, the Times' focus should be on preserving its relevance while things play out.

"It could take three to five years for things to shake out, and in Wall Street's quarterly culture, that's an eternity, but the newspaper industry, and really the industry of journalism, is demanding a different kind of courage of its leaders right now," says Doctor. "They have to communicate to shareholders that the way to navigate from here to there is going to be painful, but there's no way around it if they want to create value in the future."