Why did The New York Times discontinue its "Residential Sales Around the Region" page in the print edition's Sunday real-estate section as of August 9, 2009? The Times also no longer has it on its Web site. I liked that page. It was a useful, detailed and informative overview of all price categories in New York's residential real-estate market.

The low prices were probably unflattering to the brokers who provided the property details. The Real Estate section is essentially a glorified advertising section.

Yes, newspapers do depend on advertising, but many New York Times stories and features are not necessarily flattering to brokers. Maybe The Times just doesn't have enough real-estate ads to support using an entire page for Residential Sales anymore.

you should all write to the times and ask them to continue this feature several years ago they discontinued the Thursday update they do not want to pay the reporter

Xiang,
you can sign up on this site for email updates of recent sales in the NY area.
Street easy will email you every week, with the information.

I agree. I think that was the best part of the RE section. I liked comparing sales prices and property taxes from different areas in the region. If anyone knowns a direct email address to reach the editors so I can voice my opinion, post it here.

why would they care?

I'll miss seeing the sales I'd never otherwise see. It's a good reality-check seeing those places in, say, Rockland County, that people from work have to live in.

i meant why would the nyt care.

The New York Times is in serious financial trouble. How bad I don't think we know for sure, the Atlantic Monthly did a scary article a couple of months ago. The magazine predicted that the paper will fold. NYT just sold WQXR radio to WNYC, for example.

There are formulas newspapers use for the ratio of ad copy to editorial copy. If there aren't enough ads, then the editorial has to be cut. This was what they chose to cut.

At the Times, there has always been pretty good separation between church and state, which is the slang for editorial and advertising. I used to work at a paper as a copy editor, and we were not allowed to socialize with the people who handled ads, and they worked on another floor. It was a huge scandal when a reporter married an ad sales person!

I haven't compared but I'll just bet the page count is down in the r.e. section. The Sunday mag hardly existed this week, very sad.

{Manhattan real estate agent. Journalist for over 20 years, too}

I spoke with the reporter who does the column it will be back but not as regularly the Times has cut reporters pay by 10% and for free lance or part timers they are also cutting quantity for those of you who like this column & find it helpful write to goss@nytimes.com the times has no idea which columns they should keep or cut unless they are told by readers

"Yes, newspapers do depend on advertising, but many New York Times stories and features are not necessarily flattering to brokers. Maybe The Times just doesn't have enough real-estate ads to support using an entire page for Residential Sales anymore."

You are confused.

The NYTimes is a newspaper with some objectivity, yes. But look at their home page. There are 3 SEPARATED sections that are ADVERTISING sections. Classifieds, autos, and real estate.

NY times has some "real" real estate stories, but they're NOT in the re section. One week, the sunday section had a "what crash" type of article, and the front page of the times itself called the decline!

Two very different things.

The NYTimes re section is there for the advertising dollars. Thats all.

Its not journalism.

"Yes, newspapers do depend on advertising, but many New York Times stories and features are not necessarily flattering to brokers. Maybe The Times just doesn't have enough real-estate ads to support using an entire page for Residential Sales anymore."

And the RE section is on the "bad" side of the wall!