You raise a fair point … if elegant design and simple user experience were the NYT’s objective. However, the real mission of NYTimes.com is to sell advertising inventory and induce clicks. To do this, ads on any page must be given prominence next to articles, prohibiting a focus solely on editorial, which is why the page looks cluttered and this lovely graphic is introduced as a boxy thumbnail. And users must be compelled to click through many pages (which allows all those CPMs to be sold). This is the reason why every web site for weather requires you to click through 3 or 4 pages to find the simple 4-day forecast you really want — that’s 3 or 4 times as many ads sold.

NYT has some interesting experiments such as NYT Skimmer or NYT Lens that allow readers with a skimming need, or need for better design, to enter NYT content that way. Those sites seem both tests and pressure-release values to attract readers more attuned to design nuance.

So I agree with your point visually, but think unfortunately the business model of selling ad space leads to poor design … deliberately, to get us bouncing around and seeing a bunch of ads. Publishers make money from ad inventory, so they present as much of it as they can up to the line of really, really annoying their readers.

Cheers.