Unhappy New York Times Shareholders

Mickey Kaus over at Slate reports on the unhappy New York Times shareholders.Here's a quote from The Street.com

Morgan Stanley Investment Management said Tuesday it withheld votes for the [New York] Times' director nominees because it believes the company's board and management have become unaccountable to shareholders.

The firm, which says it owns more than 5% of the Times' Class A stock, called for the elimination of the dual-stock structure that leaves control of the board with minority shareholders led by the founding Sulzberger family

Morgan Stanley should know that these lettered stock companies which want the general public's money and retain the family business structure can be major market underperformers.Look at Dow Jones vs.the Dow 30.Look at The Washington Post.Finally,look at The New York Times.The message is: if you aren't a takeover target there could be a tendency to be a slacker in stock market performance.Obviously, there are other factors like the newspaper business just isn't as profitable because of the internet.Maybe when the Times was railing against Enron, day after day, they knew first hand what "corporate neglect" of the shareholders was all about.