The New York Times

It's on. The proxy fight is official.

The Times' January results show a steep drop in advertising sales and a weakening of online growth, and that led S&P to indicate that it may downgrade the NYT's credit rating.

It went further, S&P's statement said, "the downgrade may not be limited to one notch." How ominous is that?

This will certainly feed the rebellion by the Harbinger-Firebrand group, which has now put forward four nominees for the board of directors.

The rebels' problem is that the New York Times board is designed so as to perpetuate the control of the Ochs-Sulzberger clan. Class A stock, which is the sort Harbinger etc. own, can elect only up to four members of the board. The rest of the 13-member body is determined by Class B stock, which is privately held. In fact, 88% of the Class B stock is held by members of the controlling family.

This is the sort of self-perpetuating elitist structure that would normally be denounced in the editorial pages of, say, The New York Times.

Cheap irony to the side, though, there are ways of losing these things even when the fix seems to be in. Think of the way Eisner was run out of Disney.

More on this tomorrow.