In one of the world’s largest cities, in on of the world’s greatest newspapers, there is a serious recession going on. A recession of content. On Sunday February 24th and today, February 25th , the New York Times Metro section contained 8 pages. That’s 2 broadsheet folios. What’s up with that? Does the Times not have enough metro reporters to write stories? We certainly have enough people, neighborhoods and stories to generate many more pages. Are New Yorker’s looking to the Daily News and NY Post for their local news? Is ad revenue so far down that the Times can’t fill up 12 pages in the one section devoted to the New York area?
Also, when I was a kid in the business, the most prime real estate in the Times was the back cover. One day late last week not one section of the NY Times had a back cover ad. Those babies sold at an extra 20-25% premium over regular full pages. No one was buying.
Lovers of the New York Times beware.
