New York Times Company stock was up nearly 10% yesterday on news that two hedge funds, Harbinger Capital and Firebrand Partners, had nominated four directors to replace those loyal to the Ochs-Sulzberger family that controls the newspaper. The funds hope to unlock more of the company’s value. Its market capitalization is now about $2 billion. The Times company bought the Boston Globe for $1 billion, the Worcester Telegram and Gazette for $295 million, and About.com for $410 million. Its 17.5% stake in the Red Sox is worth at least $123 million, according to valuation of the team by Forbes, and its stake in its new Midtown headquarters is probably worth about half a billion, given that even ordinary Midtown buildings these days are trading hands for $1 billion.

One way to look at those numbers is that they value the New York Times newspaper, NYTimes.com, the International Herald Tribune, WQXR-FM, and 15 regional daily newspapers in places like Sarasota, Fla., and Santa Rosa, Calif., at negative $300 million dollars. News reports indicate Harbinger and Firebrand want the company to focus more on its Internet assets.

The uptick in the stock price is an optimistic signal, but the letter to Times management from the chief investment officer at Firebrand, Scott Galloway, made us chuckle. “The New York Times is the world’s foremost evangelist for democracy, capitalism and culture,” it said. What edition of the Times does Mr. Galloway read? There was the editorial that lamented, “The economy has been so hot in the past few years that there is a natural temptation to declare that America’s freewheeling ‘cowboy’ capitalism has triumphed permanently over European or Japanese versions.” And the one that said, “the free market works best when not completely free” and warned against those who “idealized capitalism from a distance” while not being cognizant of “the dangers of underregulation.” The New York Times likes capitalism, except for in the housing, energy, computer, or health care sectors. As for democracy, the Times has mocked President Bush’s idea of expanding it to Iraq as “gauzy talk.”

It’ll be illuminating to see how the so-called world’s foremost evangelist for capitalism responds to a bid by shareholders to maximize value. We have great respect for the Times as a competing newspaper and as a family business and for the proprietary commitment of the Sulzberger family, which has stuck by its paper through ups and downs in the market like few others save the Grahams. But something tells us that by the end of this story Mr. Galloway isn’t going to be describing the paper as the world’s foremost evangelist for capitalism — or democracy, shareholder or otherwise.