A business news story not found in the NYT

Arthur Brisbane, the public editor of the New York Times, writes Sunday about how other media have been covering the paper’s decision to begin charging for online access to content, but the story has gone uncovered in the Times.

Brisbane writes, “Of The Times’s own pay model for its Web site, though, all that has trickled into print is an initial story 14 months ago announcing that the plan would be carried out in a year, plus occasional subsequent references to the looming event. No significant story has been published — at least not as of my Friday evening deadline for this column.

“Yet the introduction of the pay model is major news for The Times, for the rest of the newspaper industry, and for Times customers and readers, some of whom have asked me why there hasn’t been coverage. Hence I think there’s a journalistic imperative for The Times to cover it energetically.

“John Morton, a veteran newspaper analyst, said: ‘People call me and ask me what I think about The Times’s new plan. I say, ‘Do you know what it is?’ ‘

“The stakes for The Times, which like other newspaper companies has seen major declines in print advertising revenues, are enormous. I asked Mr. Morton to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, the strategic importance of the pending pay model to the future of the organization”

Read more here.