On The New York Times’ Push Notifications ⇒

Margaret Sullivan, The New York Times’ public editor:

In recent months, The Times has greatly increased the use of push alerts to let readers know about investigative projects, feature stories and other journalism that isn’t breaking news. Since then, I’ve been hearing from readers who aren’t happy with some of those choices, including an alert that spoiled the end of the HBO series “The Jinx.”

I’ve certainly noticed the uptick, especially since the notifications go to my watch now. That said, it hasn’t reached the point where I’m ready to turn them off. The Times’ alerts are some of the best I’ve seen, obviously chosen in a well thought out manner designed not to inundate subscribers.

This bit from editor Cliff Levy is important, though:

“If you bother and annoy people, they will turn it off, and it’s hard to get them to turn alerts back on,” he said.

Exactly. If I decide to turn them off, I don’t think I’ll ever turn them back on.