New York Times critique

The New York Times is one of the biggest and most popular print publications that exists. Their website as well is a wealth of information and gets just as much, if not more, traffic than the newspaper itself. The New York Times has been around for a very long time, and remains one the most-read newspapers in the country. Albright even has copies of the NY Times everyday in various buildings all over campus. Although this is a great opportunity that should be taken advantage of, many people still prefer to read online.

I have been to the NY Times website before, and have found it a useful source of information. When arriving this time, and looking at it analytically, I realized it is actually very cluttered, and the amount of information coming at you is almost overwhelming. However, I did notice that the website does update itself automatically without refreshing the page. This is a great way to stay up and current on the news, whereas with the newspaper, it only comes out once a day, and the stories there are the only ones you will get from the paper that day. The website is also good because you can search for particular news items or articles up at the top, and it gives you the options of Articles or Multimedia, and can pick the time period within which you wish to search.

The home page has all the headlines and important news, but if you scroll down the page there are also things like videos, which a newspaper would obviously not have. A newspaper is divided into sections, but there is a very easy navigation of subjects along the side, on which you can click, depending on what type of news you want to read. It will first give you the top news of the section, and then smaller or less popular articles underneath this. The website has many things that a newspaper does not incorporate, and many more articles than you would find in just one issue, including old articles. However, a website may not necessarily have all the articles that were published in the paper that day, or ever. The New York Times does not want its own website to put the newspaper out of business. A newspaper is something you can pick up almost anywhere and bring with you, while online access is not always available or convenient.

Personally, I would prefer to go online than pick up a newspaper any day. The website may seem cluttered at first, but it is easy to navigate, search, and find what you are looking for. You can find things from weeks ago, and the headlines and breaking news are constantly being updated. There is also a wide variety, from videos to articles to images, and many categories from which to choose.