"There is no more important question in American journalism than the future of the Times" argues Howell Raines in a lengthy Portfolio column. Well, maybe, but Raines is a little bias: he used to be the executive editor at that newspaper! Unforch, he already used up all his insider-y anecdotes in a 2004 Atlantic article, which means he's only got the financial well-being of the paper to yammer on about.

Quite clearly, he's not hopeful. Whether it's Rupert Murdoch or some hedge fund guys doing the ruffling, Arthur Sulzberger's feathers are about to catch some wind, says Raines. And what about those restless members of the Sulzberger clan, who have witnessed their investments base-jump into mediocrity in just the past couple years? "An extended family raised to expect that their children would be invulnerably rich across future generations is looking at the prospect of being, by New York standards, sort of rich." And the prospects of peasantry can be quite convincing, especially if (when?) Murdoch pulls his cheque book from his jacket pocket. [NYO]