The group advocating “bold” change at the New York Times is not backing down from its challenge to the newspaper publisher’s digital strategy.

With the New York Times’s annual meeting about 7 weeks away, a dissident investor group formed by Harbinger Capital Partners and Firebrand Partners, boasting a 19 percent stake, is now the largest public shareholder in the Times. The group has had talks with the Times’s management about new nominees to the board, but neither side appears to have budged and today they issued their preliminary proxy to recruit shareholder support for the alternate slate. (The hopeful board members are: Scott Galloway, James Kohlberg, Allen Morgan and Gregory Shove.)

Call it an issue of timing, but the Times also put out its monthly revenue statement showing print advertising down by a lot, while Internet revenue is still growing at a healthy pace. For now, Wall Street seems to think the Times is doing what it should to make a careful transition into digital, but who knows whether that tide will turn?

(Reuters )

Keep an eye on:

• Take-Two Interactive Software’s CEO said on Tuesday that major shareholders support the video game publisher’s decision to reject a $1.9 billion takeover bid by Electronic Arts Inc, which they see as “woefully low.” Take-Two also said it has received interest from others. (Reuters)
• Newsday eliminates about 120 jobs in its newsroom. (Romenesko)(New York Post )
• Advertising services company Interpublic Group reported quarterly profit that more than tripled from the prior year and said it reached compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley standards. (Reuters)
• The head of French media conglomerate Vivendi said it was legitimate for Vivendi to look at other companies such as Germany’s largest pay-TV broadcaster Premiere. (Reuters)

(Photo: NewYorkTimes.com)