Koster, you are right on the dual stock status and Ochs family views of ‘screw you’ to the public at large. But there is one thing the Ochs can’t duck — creditors. A company of NYT’s size has a fair debt load in order to capitalize the equipment. Most large capitalizations come with some strings attached. One of which is the debtor must maintain a certain level of equity position to protect the creditors interests.

Well as the NYT stock keeps dropping the equity position shifts downward. At some point one of NYT’s major creditors is going to issue a capitalization request, ie. cough up cash. Its at this point that the death spiral really begins. Once one creditor makes a issue, most of the other majors follow right behind them protecting their positions. At that point most highly capitalized companies are cooked. They don’t keep that much cash on their balance sheets.

A class holding won’t protect them from the creditor call.