"After Changes, How Green Is The Times?"

After New York Times editors dismantled the paper's environmental desk and killed its Green blog this year, they said they were doing it to improve environmental coverage. But the Times' Public Editor says the results don't live up to Times editors' claims.



"Early this year, The Times came under heavy criticism from many readers who care deeply about news coverage about the environment — especially climate change.

In January, The Times dismantled its 'pod' of reporters and editors devoted to that subject. And in March, it discontinued its Green blog, a daily destination for environmental news.

Times editors emphasized that they were not abandoning the subject — just taking it out of its silo and integrating it into many areas of coverage.  The changes were made for both cost-cutting and strategic reasons, they said, and the blog did not have high readership. Readers and outside critics weren’t buying it. They scoffed at the idea that less would somehow translate into not only more, but also better."

Margaret Sullivan, the New York Times' Public Editor, analyzes the Grey Lady's post-pod performance November 23, 2013.

Source: NY Times, 11/25/2013