UPDATE: Harbinger Doubles Share of 'NYT' to 10%

By: A hedge fund seeking to name four directors to the board of The New York Times Co. disclosed Monday that it has increased its stake in the publishing company to nearly 10 percent from 5 percent.

Harbinger Capital Partners and several related entities now own 9.96 percent of the Times' publicly traded Class A shares, up from the 4.9 percent stake it disclosed in late January.

The company is working together with Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, to try and effect changes the publishing company, which they say hasn't been aggressive enough in building up its digital businesses.

Galloway and Harbinger said in a regulatory filing that they had met with senior Times managers on Friday, but they didn't disclose the substance of those conversations. Galloway has made clear that he isn't proposing any changes to the Times' two-class share structure, which allows the Sulzberger family to maintain control of the company.

In addition to himself, Galloway is proposing three other nominees to the Times' board, which are elected by holders of the company's publicly traded Class A shares: Allen Morgan, managing director at a venture capital firm called Mayfield Fund; former AOL executive Gregory Shove; and James Kohlberg, co-founder of the private equity investment firm Kohlberg & Co.

The other nine directors of the Times are elected by the Sulzberger family, which controls the non-publicly traded Class B shares.

Harbinger is also seeking to name three directors at another family-controlled newspaper company, Richmond-Va.-based Media General Inc. Galloway is only working with Harbinger on The New York Times.

Shares of the company rose 38 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $17.16.

An earlier AP story follows.

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Hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, along with investment company Firebrand Partners, nominated four directors to the board of New York Times Co., according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday.

Harbinger and Firebrand disclosed plans late last month to nominate people to the New York Times board. Harbinger also said at the time that it planned to nominate three directors to the board of Media General, a publisher and operator of newspapers and television stations primarily in the Southeast.

Harbinger named James A. Kohlberg, Allen L. Morgan, Gregory Shove and Scott Galloway as its nominees for Class A director positions on the Times' board, according to the filing.

The investors said last month that they were not looking to change the company's dual-class structure, which allows founding families to control a majority of the board. The Sulzberger family holds supervoting stock allowing them to elect nine of the New York Times' 13 directors.

Harbinger's portfolio includes Salton Inc., which sells George Foreman grills and Farberware appliances; and wireless communications companies Leap Wireless International Inc. and TerreStar Corp.

The Times' properties include The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and the About.com Internet business, as well as its namesake newspaper.