The simple reason is that Punch Sulzberger is not dead.  The stock structure of NYT allows for trading only on non-voting shares.  The Sulzberger Trust owns the majority of voting shares, which insulates the company from a hostile take over.  Dow Jones had a similar, although not as strong, poison pill.  Ultimately, Murdoch succeeded because of lax family governance, the size of the extended family trusts, and the threat that refusing the deal would decimate the stock price.  In the case of the Sulzbergers, the family still exercises strong governance over The Times, the family has benefited from a low birth rate, and the family Trust (there is only one) is firmly controlled by Punch who would choose the newspaper over a value decline of the stock.

The difference between Bancrofts and Sulzbergers is a matter of Punch’s backbone.  While Arthur junior has shown himself as a capable publisher (at least in the Pulitzer count), he is a weak CEO, deferring to his orbit of senior managers for the direction of the corporate ship.  That said, Arthur junior does not use the bathroom in his newly christened executive office without first consulting his father, as leader of the family trust.  As an illustration of the differences in first amendment stands between generations, just think of Arthur junior chasing Judy Miller down the steps of the federal courthouse is Washington and compare it to Punch working with Katharine Graham to publish the Pentagon Papers in violation of a court order.  The term “judgment” comes to mind.