Proponents of the break-news-elsewhere-to-entice-NYT-coverage theory (which, shockingly, has no Wikipedia entry) might be chastened by the following scoop from New York magazine. NYT reporters are reportedly banned from reading some (or perhaps a lot of) newsweeklies.
"Hoping to avoid unintentional similarities, the editor of the 'City' section asked her reporting staff to avoid reading Community Media publications," a Times spokesperson said. "The editors do not tell freelancers what to read, nor encourage their staff to read any particular publication (except the Times)."
(Via Romenesko)