New York Times Gives Its 'Green' Blog the Axe

AP

The New York Times has shuttered its "Green" blog, posting a message late Friday afternoon that its online space about "energy and the environment" was closing up.

A goodbye message went up at 5 p.m.:

The Times is discontinuing the Green blog, which was created to track environmental and energy news and to foster lively discussion of developments in both areas. This change will allow us to direct production resources to other online projects. But we will forge ahead with our aggressive reporting on environmental and energy topics, including climate change, land use, threatened ecosystems, government policy, the fossil fuel industries, the growing renewables sector and consumer choices.

In an email to colleagues obtained by the Columbia Journalism Review, former Green blog editor Nancy Kenney apologized for the "abruptness" of the cancellation and said the decision was handed down from management.

"Masthead editors at The Times informed me around noon today that they plan to discontinue the Green blog and devote resources elsewhere," Kenney wrote.

The blog's cancellation comes less than two months after the Times dismantled its environmental desk, reassigning editors and reporters to other areas.

The Columbia Journalism Review slammed the decision to do away with the blog, calling it a "horrible decision that ensures the deterioration of the Times’s environmental coverage at a time when debates about climate change, energy, natural resources, and sustainability have never been more important to public welfare."