Should Wheldon story have been A1 in the NYT?

JJ goes searching for a link.....ah, found it.

No need to get excited, though - basically, Amazon is turning into a vanity press.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/technology/amazon-rewrites-the-rules-of-book-publishing.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general

 

Still don't have an issue with the story's placement ...

 

Mizzou, I am kicking this back to you, but I see a number of people with the same mindset.

Personally, I think people underestimate the depth of the readership of the Times. I think a lot of people read it. For me, it's the third or fourth read of the morning. I am really impressed with their Sports coverage, although I see a lot of folks here cutting them down.

I don't think the readership is all East Coast-snooty.

But that's my opinion.

 

I will take the hit on that one.

My mistake.

 

I think Dale Jr. is a lead-pipe lock because his dad died in a racing crash.

I think anyone else -- except Danica Patrick -- is not a cinch.

 

I think we agree... And by no means was I saying that the NYT doesn't care about sports, but they don't use sports to "sell the paper" they way the NYC tabs do.

When I was still writing, I got the Times delivered to my door for about 10 years and it was usually for political or entertainment coverage that I knew I couldn't get in most papers. I think most people who read the NYT read the sports but I don't think they read it for the sports.

Granted, I was getting the national edition all those years, but I swear to God, I saw more horse racing or marathon stories than I saw in every other paper I read combined.

 

OK, Mizzou. Got it now.

 

To make A1 in the NYT for a breaking sports news event (instead of a pre-planned feature), it has to be really, really big. With all due respect to the tragedy and his two Indy 500 titles, Wheldon was not a household name and this was not a household event. It is a front of the sports section story.

 

I'd have to agree with this. Danica and Dale Jr. are about the only ones I can see being locks to make A1 in almost every paper. Johnson, Gordon and a few others would deserve such treatment in most areas. After seeing the lineup of the Times front I don't have a problem with the placement either. Technology (2), Politics, War, Economy and Human Interest/Crime. Seems to me that those hit the audience they're going for.

 

I did find it interesting the Times put the followup on the front Tuesday.