New York Times names two new board nominees

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times Co said on Tuesday it nominated two new candidates for its board ahead of an attempt by a dissident investor group to add four directors to its slate.

The Times, whose shares rose 3 percent in early trading, said Robert Denham and Dawn Lepore agreed to run for election at the company's annual meeting on April 22. Denham is a partner in law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, while Lepore is chief executive of Drugstore.com.

The Times said directors Brenda Barnes, chairman of Sara Lee Corp, and James Kilts, former CEO of Gillette Co, would not stand for re-election. A complete slate of directors to stand for election will be made public later this month, the company said.

An investor group formed by Firebrand Partners and hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners is pushing the newspaper group to reallocate capital and move more aggressively into digital media.

The group said in a filing on Monday it doubled its stake in the publisher of the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune to about 10 percent.

The group also said it had met with Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and Chief Executive Janet Robinson last Friday and called it a "productive and positive dialogue."

The Times's move appears to leave open two independent board seats. Firebrand was not immediately reachable for comment.

Unlike an earlier attempt by Morgan Stanley Investment Management that targeted the Times's controlling Ochs-Sulzberger family, Harbinger and Firebrand are not seeking to eliminate the company's dual-class share structure that protects the family's control.