NYT Editor: Our Subscribers Aren't So Bright

New York Times readers are a brilliant bunch, right? Not according to one NYT editor. Gerald Marzorati, the assistant managing editor for new media and strategic initiatives, opened wide and inserted his foot directly into his mouth during a panel discussion at the Digital Hollywood New York conference yesterday, while explaining how the paper has managed to maintain a robust print business: “We have north of 800,000 subscribers paying north of $700 a year for home delivery. Of course, they don’t seem to know that.”

He continued on, explaining that when the paper raised home delivery rates 5% during the recession, only .01% of subscribers canceled. “I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that they’re literally not understanding what they’re paying,” he said. “That’s the beauty of the credit card.” Forbes notes that the panel's moderator predicted that this would be the last panel the NYT would let Marzorati sit on.
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