I’ve been reading the New York Times daily since I lived in New York in the late 1960s. It was a very different paper (a “paper,” that is) then. Now, despite a few very pertinent newsworthy stories, they are giving us a bunch of lightweight flaky stuff on their web’s front page. You must go below the fold (the double line) to get the real news and opinions. Why is this happening?
Here’s the lead story, top of the front page today (Saturday): “Trump’s Fixation on Arctic Ships Led to Billions in No-Bid Contracts.” The piece questions the need for so many icebreakers, and from Finland yet. Odd that this is their lead story.
We’re offered a few more pieces on the mid-East wars below that. But the righthand column conveys a dozen or more frivolous, whimsical pieces that have no place in a paper that claims to be the “authoritative and preeminent source for comprehensive news coverage and historical archiving” in the United States. Here’s a sample:
The good stuff, at least for me, is usually “below the fold,” as we oldsters used to call it. I mean the many sections below Sports and Games. These are labeled World News, US News, US Politics, New York, Business, etc. Each section lists three stories, presumably reflecting their editors’ choice for significance. I trust them because a newspaper is nothing if not a news filter.
Well, I’m told the readership likes it this way, and the Times is a thriving business after all. The paper enlists some 13 million readers who average over an hour of daily engagement with it. Besides the authoritative reporting which it’s long been known for, readers seem to go for the lifestyle and gaming stuff that I don’t have much use for, plus the daily newsletter and audio “columns” that draw readers into a conversation. They recently added video to the mix, which doesn’t seem to work as well.
One’s taste in such matters gets formed over many years, of course. It’s not that I liked the old Times better. It’s that I like the beer, not the foam.
yes, but the Times of old that you and I enjoyed reflected haughty ignorance, which is to say they had no idea of what customers were actually reading. for better or worse, they do now, so stuff that readers like gets featured, including recipes and Wirecutter. the plan is to make money by giving the customers what they want. sad, but hard to argue against.
Maybe so, but the readership has changed drastically, and people want different things from a newspaper now. See Sally’s comment below.
But John. I hav 81 wins in Wordle & a running score of 5 out of 6 for word games daily!!! If I read “above the fold”, I wouldn’t keep my brain as healthy.🫠