The New York Times is facing backlash online after it failed to place the Knicks’ historic NBA championship victory at the top of its homepage.
Jeff Jarvis, an emeritus journalism professor at CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, shared a screenshot showing the Gray Lady leading with developments in the Middle East rather than the Knicks’ first NBA title in more than 50 years.
Two stories on the championship run and the ensuing celebrations in New York City appeared lower on the homepage, beneath the lead stories.
Jarvis took to social media to pronounce the end of the Times as a New York paper.
“That The New York Times did not lead with the Knicks’ title is final proof that The Times is not a New York newspaper anymore,” he wrote on Bluesky.
Over the past decade, the paper has steadily shifted away from covering the Big Apple in favor of stories with broader national and global appeal, a strategy it publicly trumpeted in 2016.
That year, the Times eliminated separate Metropolitan editions for New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester and Connecticut readers while scaling back regional arts, restaurant and theater coverage.
Jarvis followed up his jab at the Times with screenshots of two rival publications — the US edition of the Guardian and Time magazine.
The former’s homepage featured the Knicks as the lead story, while Time unveiled a Knicks-themed cover.
“Guardian US has consistently better news judgment. It is New York’s — and the nation’s — newspaper,” Jarvis wrote on Bluesky.
A New York Times spokesperson defended the paper’s approach to the historic Knicks win.
“We’ve had extensive coverage of the Knicks’ win from Times and Athletic reporters,” the spokesperson told The Post.
“The story led our homepage for readers in New York for hours on Sunday with a banner headline.”
The Post has sought clarification about the banner headline.
It is unclear what time Jarvis took the screenshot of the Times homepage that he shared on Bluesky.
The screenshot indicates that the date was Sunday, hours after the Knicks defeated the Spurs to win their first championship since 1973.
The Post has sought comment from Jarvis.
Social media users circulated photos of the front page of Sunday morning’s print edition of the Times that did not include any mention of the Knicks game from the previous night.
A Times spokesperson told The Post that the newsroom sends its print edition to press at 8 p.m. — 30 minutes before the Knicks game started in San Antonio on Saturday evening.
The cover of the Times print edition from Monday prominently featured the Knicks above the fold.