Architecture and the decline of the NY Times

I read a great article by Seth Godin on  his blog this morning “Watching the Times struggle (and what you can learn)” and I am reminded of a saying I heard somewhere but it applies. When a company hires a famous architect to design a new headquarters, sell the stock.

Renzo Piano is one of the best architects in the world. He designed the NY Times new Headquarters in NYC. What on earth is the NY TImes doing building a new building, let alone a very expensive building when they are in so much trouble? From SILICON ALLEY INSIDER

After the market closed today the New York Times announced it would cut its dividend from 23 cents a share to 6 cents, which will save the company $97.8 million a year. Lord knows they need the cash. It probably would have been wise to cut the dividend to zero, but this is still a big step in the right direction. The stock now sits at $5.72 a share.

Here is a link to a nice rendering of the building.

Their current building was just fine, sure it was old, but in a classic example, they were paying attention to the wrong things. Instead of figuring out how to better compete in the online world, the senior management had lots of fun trips to Piano’s Studio in Italy, lots of fun picking out materials and deciding on designs. This is a great example of how the online world is changing and the real world results.