Bloomberg says not interested in newspaper business

By Edith Honan and Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday dismissed media reports that he could be a suitor for the New York Times Co, saying he is not interested in getting into the newspaper industry.

"I am not going to go into the newspaper business," Bloomberg said when asked by reporters at a press conference to discuss city affairs. "I am not a newspaper person."

Bloomberg, who before becoming mayor founded Bloomberg LP, a financial news and information service, has been encouraged by people close to him to buy the New York Times Co and save the company from shareholder assaults, according to a recent report in Newsweek magazine.

Bloomberg could take the company private and "help protect the brand" with his estimated $11.6 billion personal fortune, Newsweek said in its April 28 edition, quoting an unnamed source.

Shares of the New York Times, publisher of the newspaper of the same name and the Boston Globe, were up 3 percent earlier on Monday before shedding most of the gains after Bloomberg's public response.

The New York Post reported on Monday also that some members of the Ochs-Sulzberger family, which controls the Times, want to find a protector. It cited unnamed sources.

A Times spokeswoman, repeating a position frequently attributed to the Ochs-Sulzbergers, said the family believes the company's current capital structure is the best way to protect its editorial independence.

The Ochs-Sulzberger family has controlled the Times since 1896, a structure it has preserved with a second tier of voting shares, but many holders of its publicly traded shares have accused the company's executives of not managing it properly and have sought more power over its future strategy.