Perhaps He'd Already Had A Few
Don't you love it when corporate executives reveal just how out of touch they are?
At a media conference yesterday, Martin Nisholz, president of New York Times Digital, defended his company's decision to start charging $50 for online access to the Times' archives and its columnists.
"There comes a point at which you have to say, 'Where is the value equation?' when you are talking about online media," Nisenhold said. As I've suggested before, when people start using language like "value equation," you know they're trying to sugarcoat something they'd find hard to defend in plain language.
He then added: "For the cost of roughly two and a half martinis, you can have access to the entire archives."
Hmmm...I don't know about you, but I'm not throwing back $20 martinis. If Nisholz is, the Times is either a) paying him too much, or b) needs to start paying attention to his expense account.
But what the paper really needs to consider is how that kind of "let them drink martinis" attitude reflects a class-based view of the electronic world...and whether such a dismissive attitude towards the vast majority of Americans really serves the paper well.
