These Times Demand Advertising

If you’re like us, you snapped open your paper this morning while taking a sip of your iced Americano and were cheerily greeted by a brilliant blue insert touting…itself?

Yes, the NY Times has mounted a feel-good campaign that points out all the things you forgot you loved about them, namely, that their reporters write pensively in notebooks. Check it out online, where there are bios and films about the Times’ top contributors, plus a TV spot which tells us it’s not about newspapers, really, but about “the quality of journalism, end of story.”

Is this what it’s come to? Papers are practically forced to print headlines like “We’re