With The New York Times facing declining revenue and worse expectations, media watchers across the industry are developing strategies to prevent the Gray Lady from suffering the fate of The Wall Street Journal. The latest: colleges and universities to the rescue.

In the current issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, Lee Smith, a former senior writer at Fortune, makes an impassioned plea that the seven wealthiest private universities should pool their resources to purchase the paper:

What if the Sulzbergers could sell their shares to a trustworthy investor, one that was interested in maximizing intellectual value rather than financial value? The endowments of the nation's seven wealthiest private universities — Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania — would be that reliable proprietor. At the end of the most recent fiscal year their combined endowments totaled just under $114-billion. If each university put three percent of its endowment in a pool, the sum of $3.4-billion would very likely be enough to buy the paper. At that price the current shareholders, Sulzbergers and non-Sulzbergers alike, would receive a premium of $1-billion above the market price.

Smith writes the goal of purchasing the Times "would be to help ensure the continuing availability of the kind of information that helps make intellectual life possible," but doesn't abandon the money aspect completely, advocating that "for the CEO to keep his or her job, the Times would have to pass some sort of financial test, such as being at least marginally profitable in any five-year period."

Our favorite line: "If the Bancrofts thought the news business had a financial future, they might not have sold to Murdoch." Agreed.

C'mon guys, you're not even trying. At least we have an excuse for being tired and uncreative.

Across the nation, newspaper circulations continue to careen downwards. At least one paper is bucking the trend or, perhaps more appropriately, esta como perro en barrio ajeno.

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, El Diario La Prensa, New York's leading Spanish-language newspaper, saw its circ jump 7.6 percent for the six-month period ending in March 2008. The increase was the highest for any paper with a circulation of over 50,000, greatly outpacing The Times of Munster, Indiana (3.01 percent increase) and The Cincinnati Enquirer (2.93 percent).

El Diario, celebrating its 95th anniversary this year, has a daily circulation of 53,856. Muy bueno. Maybe the paper needs a media reporter.

From the tip box: Belle Elving, home editor of the Washington Post, will take a buyout. In an email to FishbowlNY, she writes, "Nothing surprising. Just that the timing is right for me."

Our brother blog, FishbowlDC, is straight up killing it covering the story, so head there for more details.

Add another chapter (and headache for Rupert Murdoch) to the imbroglio surrounding former Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli's departure: A report published this afternoon on WSJ's own site — essentially pitting News Corp. against Dow Jones in a moral mano y mano —asserts that the "special committee established to oversee The Wall Street Journal's editorial integrity said its members should have been informed earlier that the newspaper's managing editor, Marcus Brauchli, had been pressured to resign." But the damning article alone wasn't all...

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Last week, the Financial Times — clearly not content to take over the Middle East — held its 5th annual "Meet the FT New York" party at 30 Rock. Sheryl Sandberg, the new COO of Facebook, gave the keynote, while guests included Dow Jones EVP and CFO Stephen Daintith, Jane Friedman and Thomas Matussek, Ambassador of Germany to the UN (not as cool as a Cardinal, but whatevs). The media kids — NYT's Tim Arango, Jonathan Wald, our own Laurel Touby and hubby Jon Fine, Gloria Steinem, Jason Rapp, Steve Rattner, etc. etc. — came for the Bellinis and stayed for the Blinis with American Caviar and Creme Fraiche.

And there were pictures (and more names)...

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Starting tomorrow, the Financial Times will extend its reach further with the launch of a Middle East edition. Middle East correspondent Andrew England and Gulf News editor James Drummond will be based in United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi, while Simeon Kerr, Gulf Business correspondent, will write from Dubai (where an FT edition has been printed since 2003). Roula Khalaf, the London-based Middle East editor, will oversee the project.

The launch is consistent with the Financial Times' global expansion strategy and complements existing operations in the Gulf region. The Financial Times now has dedicated editions for the UK, Continental Europe, Asia, US and the Middle East and is printed in 24 cities across the world.

Full release after the jump.

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Hooray, the latest newspaper circulation numbers are here. And to the surprise of no one, the picture ain't pretty: The New York Times' Sunday edition lost 9.2 percent of its circ while its daily counterpart fell 3.8 percent. The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Miami Herald and pretty much every other paper in the entire country saw circulation numbers tumble further down the slippery slope.

Rupert Murdoch got some mixed news, as his Wall Street Journal bucked the trend with a 0.3 percent increase, while the money pit that is New York Post saw its daily circ fall 3 percent daily and its Sunday circ plummet 8. But hey, at least the fact checking is flawless.

On Sunday, the New York Post ran a story about an increase in the number of medical mistakes. In typical Post fashion, the article started with a bang — "Horrific medical mistakes kill, maim and sicken New Yorkers in alarming numbers." — and got increasingly dramatic, eventually telling the story of Darrie Eason, a Long Island woman who passed away last May after an unnecessary double mastectomy.

One problem: Eason's still alive:

A story headlined "Unsafe Hands" and a photo caption in yesterday's Post wrongly reported that Darrie Eason, of Long Beach, LI, died last May following a double mastectomy at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre, LI.

Eason did not die.

Another, unidentified woman died in the Mercy case.

The mistake has been corrected online.

Greenspun Media, publishers of Las Vegas Weekly and In Business Las Vegas, rewarded a pair of executives with promotions. Bruce Spotleson, formerly the founding executive of both pubs, is the new group publisher, while Nelson Oshita will oversee day-to-day operations of Weekly as associate publisher. He had been advertising manager there.