1 Companies that take this kind of tone with their customers (and subscribers and other readers are indeed customers, even if the majority of revenue comes indirectly via advertisers) don't tend to have terribly bright financial futures.

2 Yes. Did I mention that this is the New York Times?

3 http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=NYT&t=5y

4 Exactly. Unfortunately, the lefty media types of my acquaintance simply chalk this general trend up to the fact that people are getting a lot more news over the internet these days. We are. But why, specifically, are people shying away from most heritage media news sources, rather than switching and reading them online? They have not addressed the issue of mistrust, because to do so would require that they cop to the general leftist bias. And of course, in these people's minds the only bias is one AGAINST their views, due to the effect of the Rovian mind rays that keep us all from being OUTRAGED that there's a WAR going on.