What on earth is Martin Nisenholtz still doing at the New York Times? The online veteran, involved in interactive media since bringing ads to Time's Teletext service in the late 1970s, is one of the only execs at the Times with any real understanding of internet media. But the integration of the online and print divisions of the venerable newspaper has left Nisenholtz, nominally head of the digital division, without real power. Will someone please hire him?

Nisenholtz's job looks great on paper. In response to a Valleywag inquiry, he gives a pro-forma statement.

I have one of the great jobs in Internet media, I love my team. We're in the midst of a historic transformation of the leading brand in journalism. We expect to report revenues of $270 million for 2006 (up 36%!) and we're investing heavily both in our internal businesses and in new businesses. And I get to work with some of the smartest people on the planet.

But Nisenholtz lost the battle with Arthur Sulzberger, latest member of the family dynasty that controls the newspaper, to allow free access to writers such as Thomas Friedman. Since the introduction of Times Select, the premium service which has put the paper's best content behind a subscription wall, the Times' oped writers have disappeared from the online conversation.

Since the merger of print and online operations, online edit and online sales departments no longer report through Nisenholtz, but to their respective print counterparts. He has to consult with Jill Abramson, a former DC bureau chief, over conference appearances. We're not even sure whether even Ron McCoy, the exec who came to the Times with his well-timed acquisition of the online guides of About.com and still works for the paper from Atlanta, answers to Nisenholtz.

In short, the Times print legacy is strangling its online future. So why does Nisenholtz, said by former colleagues to be deeply unhappy in his position, stay in the job?

If the New York Times online boss left now, he would sacrifice part of his pension. The newspaper role still has some prestige, at least to outsiders unaware how much real power has leached away. And, because people simply assume that Nisenholtz has, as he says, one of the great jobs in internet media, he doesn't get offered jobs by internet companies such as Google, or the investment funds now looking at the sector.

Nisenholtz is the prisoner of 43rd Street. Someone, please, save him. It would be a waste for such a talent simply to serve out his time at the Times.