Should Google be the Murdoch for the NY Times?

A great piece out of Splice Today addresses the plight of the New York Times in a thoughtful and well-written way.

I'm not sure what Splice Today is, but it's mission statement reads, "To provoke, irritate, delight and confuse readers who are bored or dissatisfied with current online journalism."

Will Google Buy The New York Times?
By Andrew Sargus Klein
DEC 10, 2008, 10:29AM

Excerpt:

A new favorite recipe for salvation that’s kicked around the blogosphere involves none other than Google. The Times has an estimated price tag of $3 to $4 billion. (Rupert Murdoch paid $5 billion for Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal’s parent company.) A fistful of billions, even in this economy, might not be too big of a dent in Google’s bottom line and, it’s argued, the ends would soon pay back the means. The anonymous blogger at Dear John Thain divided his pro-acquisition reasons into four points: it would give Google an even more highly integrated advertising model; if Google distributes the Times, it takes in the paper’s ad revenue while also moving the medium away from dead trees; the Times’ push to personalize content couldn’t be better supported by Google; the Times’ product—the news—is priceless, and it would benefit Google and the rest of us if it stayed available.