An article in the Week in Review section of today's New York Times reports that "in New York City, with four daily newspapers, weekly magazines, local TV affiliates and a television news station all its own, free media trumps paid."
"Four daily newspapers"? This from the same newspaper whose publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., said in a February 22, 2001, speech, "let me remind you that in 1896 there were seventeen English language daily newspapers in New York City. Today there are 2 and a half." Smartertimes.com noted back then that among the city's English-language dailies are the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, the Staten Island Advance, the New York Law Journal, the Brooklyn Eagle and the Columbia Daily Spectator. That's seven, not counting the New York Times. And that's not even mentioning the city's Spanish-language and Chinese-language dailies, nor Newsday, which sells more copies than the Times does in Queens, but which is based outside of New York City, on Long Island. Nor trade publications like Womenswear Daily, the Daily Deal or American Banker.
It's hard to figure out what exactly to make of this "four daily newspapers" claim. Is the Times admitting that its publisher was wrong in February when he claimed the city has only two and a half newspapers? Which four dailies is the Times counting?
Brooklyn Bridge: An article in the City section in today's New York Times begins, "Just south of the onramp to the Brooklyn Bridge, on a patch of green, there is a small cluster of trees." It doesn't make much sense to speak of "the" onramp to the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge has several onramps. Some are on the Brooklyn side. Others are on the Manhattan side. One is the Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp. There's a reference above another article on the same page of the paper to "Lower Manhattan," which could give readers the idea that the onramp in question is on the Manhattan side of the bridge. But beyond that, the Times article is not much help in explaining where this cluster of trees is.