Warsh: Washington Post is moving to preserve its independence, New York Times ‘seems at risk’

Economic Principals
David Warsh admires the Washington Post’s long game. It’s been “cutting costs and buttressing its unassailability,” he writes, while the New York Times “often seems to be doing just the reverse.”

As a national paper in competition with the WSJ, it has many close substitutes, among readers and advertisers alike. Its strategy seems downright reckless: keep staffing high, expand various sections, price aggressively (a daily paper costs $2.50, vs. $2.00 for the WSJ), and deepen the Web presence.

Warsh notes that the Post’s market capitalization is about $3 billion — compared to the Times’, which is about $1 billion — and its stock prices aren’t on the same planet. The Times, Warsh writes, is “living on moonbeams.”