An open letter to the New York Times

[rhu]

(I also sent this to the Public Editor, not that it's really worthy of the public editor's time and attention, but I couldn't find a more appropriate contact address. I asked him to please forward this to the appropriate department. If anyone who reads this has any contacts at the Times, perhaps you could pass it along as well. :-)

In general, I like the new navigation on the bottom of the front page, and the expanded navigation on pages 2 through 4. I have one minor complaint and a suggestion.

The complaint is that the expanded index on pages 2 through 4 makes it even harder to use a "subway fold" on those pages. I understand why you had to go to 12 inches; I understand that this means 5 columns on most pages; I understand the need to fit the news summary in the middle of the premium ads.

Yet: I still find the paper falling apart when I read the editorial page, and now it falls apart when I read the news summary as well. (For the editorial page, I'd suggest going to four columns and having the editorials on the top 60% of the page and the letters on the bottom 40%. You'd have the same space allotment as today, but the paper could be properly folded along the vertical axis.)

Please, please, please try to find a way to fix this.

The suggestion is that you add the page number for the crossword puzzle to the list of pages at the bottom of page one. This is particularly important on Fridays, when the "slice" of the paper containing the puzzle can vary. (Barring that, perhaps on Fridays you could include some indication on the front of the appropriate subsection of Weekend?)

Thanks,
Andrew Greene

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

If I were you, I would have signed the letter "Andrew Marc Greene."