Top 5 Most Viewed Features at NYTimes.com for July 23-29:
1. Home & Garden: What's Lurking in Your Countertop?
2. Science: 10 Things to Scratch From Your Worry List
3. Olympics: Records Say Chinese Gymnasts May Be Under Age
4. Rich: How Obama Became Acting President
5. Dowd: Is 'The One' Cocky or Commander in Chiefy?
The top two items on this list struck me as archetypal New York Times fan stories: Stories about problems that, when compared to the hand-to-mouth struggle facing billions of humans, seem absolutely insane to complain about. But to the well-educated and likely well-heeled NYT.com reader, concern over harmless radiation in luxury granite countertops(first story) or fear of sharks are urgent crises.
After relating a story of a pediatrician who freaks out from a radon test, the top article states:
Seems like this paragraph, which was the seventh in the story, negates the purpose of the piece.
Also, while John Tierney's science column has been sweet when I've read it(this one is good), and this column isn't bad or dumb, it seems kind of lame that the second-most read item on the site is about somewhat trivial stuff(some of the items are worthwhile) that won't hurt you.
The shark attack thing in particular stuck out to me because journalist Tom Fenton, who wrote 2005's "Bad News", reported in the book that the top tv news story in the summer of 2001 was shark attacks.
If people really want to read about this kind of stuff, they will keep getting it from for-profit media.
1. Home & Garden: What's Lurking in Your Countertop?
2. Science: 10 Things to Scratch From Your Worry List
3. Olympics: Records Say Chinese Gymnasts May Be Under Age
4. Rich: How Obama Became Acting President
5. Dowd: Is 'The One' Cocky or Commander in Chiefy?
The top two items on this list struck me as archetypal New York Times fan stories: Stories about problems that, when compared to the hand-to-mouth struggle facing billions of humans, seem absolutely insane to complain about. But to the well-educated and likely well-heeled NYT.com reader, concern over harmless radiation in luxury granite countertops(first story) or fear of sharks are urgent crises.
After relating a story of a pediatrician who freaks out from a radon test, the top article states:
Indeed, health physicists and radiation experts agree that most granite countertops emit radiation and radon at extremely low levels. They say these emissions are insignificant compared with so-called background radiation that is constantly raining down from outer space or seeping up from the earth's crust, not to mention emanating from manmade sources like X-rays, luminous watches and smoke detectors.
Seems like this paragraph, which was the seventh in the story, negates the purpose of the piece.
Also, while John Tierney's science column has been sweet when I've read it(this one is good), and this column isn't bad or dumb, it seems kind of lame that the second-most read item on the site is about somewhat trivial stuff(some of the items are worthwhile) that won't hurt you.
The shark attack thing in particular stuck out to me because journalist Tom Fenton, who wrote 2005's "Bad News", reported in the book that the top tv news story in the summer of 2001 was shark attacks.
If people really want to read about this kind of stuff, they will keep getting it from for-profit media.
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