The New York Times Co. And Managing Expectations

The New York Times, ?? Difficult Annual Times Meeting for Sulzbergers,?/a> published just before this morning’s annual meeting of Times Co. shareholders:

“According to people who have spoken with [NY Times Co. Chairman Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.], the family and the company are prepared for the possibility that the vote withheld might exceed 50 percent.”

Actual percentage of shareholder votes withheld: 42 percent.

In politics, they call this “better than expected.”

Still, dissident shareholder Hassan Elmasry of Morgan Stanley points out the salient issue in a statement his PR folk put out after the vote: once you subtract the family’s 19% share of the Class A shares, over half of the company’s shareholders essentially voted ‘no’ on the Times Co. status quo.