Massive information overload may be the No. 1 reason for readers fleeing the printed New York Times, according to its publisher “Pinch” Sulzberger. Or at least that is one of the logical takeaways gleaned from his keynote speech last week at the WebbyConnect summit held at the posh Ritz Carlton at Dana Point, Calif.

Pinch believes the world’s senses are being assaulted by data deluge, leaving traditional august arbiters of what is and what is not important (e.g., NYT) fighting for survival or for the attention of readers. Bloggers galore are pumping out reams of facts, misstatements, propaganda and personal attacks that addle the brains of millions of simple information seekers.

Pinch sees the “need to maintain perspective as the tendency to either become agitated by the tidal wave of news or to ignore critically important stories because you can no longer process what is happening.” In other words, you can go nuts surfing the Internet because as the `Net, mobile phones and cable TV become “ubiquitous, every new political development, natural disaster, military conflict, is transmitted instantaneously.” Pinch believes it is reasonable to ask: “Do we need all this news and information? Do we want all this news and information? Can we tolerate all of this news and information?”

Tipping his cap to Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria, Pinch worries that “we know so much about what is happening throughout our planet, we may have lost some perspective along the way.” As Zakaria wrote in “The Post-American World:” the immediacy of the images and the intensity of the 24-hour news cycle combine to produce constant hyperbole. Every weather disturbance is the Storm of the Century. Every bomb that explodes is breaking news.”

Sulzberger reminded the audience to remember the “need for balance and maintaining that critically important sense of perspective on our world and its developments to keep from either sensationalizing or trivializing local, national or international reports.”

Relief, dear readers, is at hand. Pinch delivered the pitch that people should rely on the NYT as information gatekeeper because it takes the responsibility of trying to “gauge what you take in and when you take it in” very seriously.

Sulzberger hopes readers will spend the tiny portion of their day that they are not reading either this blog or absorbing odwyerpr.com at the NYT site. Or better still, pick up a copy of the NYT and help reverse the 3.6 percent circulation drop to 1M that the paper suffered during the six-month ended September reporting period. Pinch would be pleased.

(Photo: Tufts.edu)