The thing that really impresses me though, is this page: Most Emailed Articles. Note how there are only two NYTS-protected Op-Ed columns in the list - at places 6 and 20. The Op-Ed columns used to take up most slots in the top 5, which merit special mention on the NYT home page. This is all the more incredible when you consider that NYTS readers know that most or all of their friends do not have access to NYTS - which should encourage them to email more, not less.
In other words, it is looking as if eight of the NYT's most-prized properties have suddenly dropped off the face of the Earth.
Two more things that I am noticing.
- The little orange NYTS logos all over the NYT home page are annoying to me, a non-subscriber. When I visit a website, I want to feel like I have full unfettered access, to click on any link - in a sense this is the primary sensation that the Web is all about. NYTS frustrates this aspect of the experience, and makes browsing the NYT less enjoyable all around. Contrast that feeling to the feeling you get when browsing Yahoo News, or Google News, instead.
- I don't really miss the columnists. Now forced not to read them - or dig through John Tabin's list for the privilege - I realize they spend most of their time parroting the party line on one side or the other, and there are many places to get that. As a whole the blogosphere has far more wit and cleverness than any individual anyway, so my time is better spent foraging.
1 comment:
I've already removed the NYTimes OpEd page from my daily RSS feed and "News" tab in my browser. It's as if it doesn't exit to me anymore. And, nobody seems be talking about NYTimes OpEds in the blogosphere.
So, here's a question: say you're Maureen Dowd, to Thomas Freidman, or Frank Rich. You're pretty used to having more people read and email your article around than are reading, say, the Style section's expose on the comeback of feather boas. But now, with the NYTimes using your popularity to generate revenue, about 10% of your previous audience is reading you.
What do you do?
I'll tell you: you jump ship to another newspaper which will get your column read.
So, who do you think will go first? I think the likely order will be: (1) Dowd, (2) Krugman, (3) Kristof, (4) Herbert, (5) Brooks.
They'll be left with Tierney (who can't move) and Rich (who won't).
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