If you're selling subscriptions, wouldn't that leave you more committed to the journalistic quality readers want rather than letting advertisers dominate that discussion?
Two recent pieces are leading me to believe that NYT is floundering around, without a real cohesive online strategy, still:
[1]http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/the_new_york_timess_digital_li....
[2]http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/the_new_york_times_cant_abando....