Inside “Below the Fold”: The Data Dashboard Proving the New York Times’ Biggest Biases
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, For decades, critics of the New York Times have relied on gut feelings and anecdotal evidence to claim the “Gray Lady” is out of touch with Middle America. Now, there’s a spreadsheet for that.
A groundbreaking new interactive dashboard titled “Below the Fold” has opened a digital window into 25 years of Times coverage, turning prose into hard percentages. The results? They provide empirical proof of the geographical and topical obsessions that shape the world’s most influential newsroom.
The “Moneyball” of Media: Gaza vs. Middle America
Developed by Ted Alcorn—a freelance journalist and former policy analyst—the database allows users to sort coverage using a unique metric: Articles per Million Residents per Year (AMRY).
When you adjust for population, the Times’ “obsession” with certain regions becomes starkly visible. Between 2000 and 2025:
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Gaza reached an astonishing 104.4 AMRY.
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Israel followed at 55.7 AMRY.
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In contrast, India (with a population over 1.4 billion) generated only 10,678 total stories—fewer than the 14,483 stories tagged for Israel.
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Major global players like Japan (1.32 AMRY) and Germany (2.78 AMRY) barely register on the Times’ radar by comparison.
Flyover Country? The Data Says Yes
The “Below the Fold” dashboard also tracks how the Times covers the United States. If you live in a “coastal elite” hub or a favorite vacation spot for editors, you’re in luck.
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The Winners: DC, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine receive high coverage relative to their size.
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The Ignored: States like Alabama, Indiana, Arkansas, and New Jersey consistently rank at the bottom.
The data suggests that news, for the Times, is often what happens near an editor’s summer home rather than in the heart of the country.
Fewer Stories, More Journalists: The Productivity Paradox
Perhaps the most shocking revelation involves the Times’ internal efficiency. Since 2016, the paper has significantly increased its headcount while producing less written content.
| Year | Total Articles | Total Word Count | Avg. Words per Article |
| 2016 | 65,497 | 50.3 Million | 768 |
| 2025 | 47,793 | 46.5 Million | 973 |
Despite the newsroom growing to a record 2,300 journalists (a 50% increase in a decade), the Times is publishing nearly 18,000 fewer articles annually than it did nine years ago. While some of this is attributed to a pivot toward “off-platform” content like podcasts and TikToks, the average article has become increasingly “prolix,” jumping from 768 to 973 words.
The Decline of New York and Books
The dashboard also tracks the slow death of traditional sections:
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New York Coverage: Collapsed from nearly 20,000 articles in 2006 to fewer than 3,000 per year today.
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Book Reviews: Coverage has been slashed by more than half, from a 2006 peak of 2,852 articles to just 1,312 in 2025.
Final Thought
By using the Times’ own public developer API, Alcorn has created a mirror that the paper may find uncomfortable to look into. Whether it’s the hyper-focus on the Levant or the abandonment of local New York reporting, the numbers don’t lie: the “Gray Lady” is changing, and not necessarily in the direction of the average American reader.
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Tags: Media Bias Data Journalism New York Times Digital Media Middle America Gaza Coverage
a failing ‘paper’
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