Shorting the NYT

Shorting a stock means selling shares in that stock that you don’t own. Later of course you must come up with the shares, hopefully bought at a lower price. You short a stock when you think it will tank. Last night I tried to sell short the New York Times. I received this message:

This stock is either ineligible to be shorted or shares must be borrowed externally. Lenders of hard-to-borrow securities charge a fee in the form of interest. Clients who wish to short a minimum of $100,000 of a hard-to-borrow security and are willing to pay a fee to cover the cost of borrowing those shares, may contact Securities Lending at 1-800-355-2448 to determine the fee amount.

Seems everyone wants to short this stock so you can't find anyone to lend you shares. I was hoping to cash in on the Slime's ride to the bottom.

Update October 20th: Jen thinks this would qualify as speculation. Not even, the Times will continue to fall as long as Pinch is in charge. Since my first attempt to short the stock Morgan Stanley sold all its shares and as of Friday’s close the price is down 10%. I hate the ones that get away, be they fish or opportunities, I should have bought a put.