Times hijacks New York Times

It’s Sunday. And there’s something wrong. Very wrong. I’ve got my coffee, my newspaper and the couch all to myself. But where the hell is the New York Times supplement? They’ve moved it to the Times … on a Friday. You have got to be kidding me.

This means that only Sunday Times subscribers who live in major metropolitan areas get the New York Times weekly supplement. I feel like I’m being prejudiced by the publishers of the Sunday Times simply because I live in Grahamstown, which isn’t even near a major metropolitan area, for God’s sake.

Don’t they realise that if you live in a one-horse town then you need things like the New York Times? People in cities have sushi, Exclusive Books, delis, coffee shops and other things to do on a Sunday. Here we only have fresh air and a low crime rate.

What could they be thinking? No clues on Times editor Ray Hartley’s blog. No clues in the newspaper itself. Just a simple notice: the New York Times has moved to the Times.

So could it be as simple as subscription greed? A move to force more people to subscribe? That is, after all, the reason why the Times exists: subscribe and you get a free newspaper delivered to your door. (But only if you live in a major metropolitan area.)

Or could the giant of South Africa’s newspapers, with a circulation of more than 500 000, be taking a sideswipe at the little old Mail & Guardian, which is also published on Fridays?

And, yes, I know I can read the NYT online, but I don’t want to. I want the newspaper. I spend a lot of time online. I read a lot of stuff online. But I like sitting on my couch, being surrounded by newsprint … It’s timeout from my laptop. It’s timeout from feeling like I’m working. Goddammit, Mondli, I want my Sunday back!

PS: According to the Johncom site, the Sunday Times has more than 3,5-million readers, with a circulation of 506 147. But, typically for a communications company, its website has not been updated and carries no information about its new baby, the Times. Ray Hartley wrote in a post at the beginning of August that 11 000 new subscriptions had been signed up since the daily newspaper was launched, bringing the total number of Slimes subscribers in metropolitan areas to 127 000 or so.