I find my eyes drawn to the headline and as long as headline and some text is clearly visible I'm not annoyed as I can start reading immediately. So I don't think there is a need to devote majority of your above fold area to immediate content.

In fact the blog is annoying because I couldn't read even a single line of text without scrolling down. The picture was completely irrelevant. Atleast in nytimes, everything except the banner ad, above the fold is useful. often I find myself clicking on the tech category soon after reading a tech article.