YWN is a business venture that requires as many eyes on the website as possible that will respond to the advertisements. Otherwise, there is no YWN. Hence, sensational-sounding news articles with attention-grabbing headlines are practically a necessity. Nothing wrong with any of this as long as the truth is followed. In a further attempt to attract a more diverse readership, YWN has, in the past few years, expanded the scope of its reporting to include all kinds of news items, the types of which were not reported in years past. A while back, the site reported mainly yeshiva world news. In recent years, practically any news item reported on the general news finds its way onto YWN. In fact, except for blatantly shmutzy news items — nearly all the general news is considered suitable for today’s YWN website.
The same is true concerning YWN’s editorial/ ideological stance regarding anyone or anything the editors deem “extreme,” for example, opposing any form of public “kana’us,” Chareidim demonstrating in the streets, publishing pictures of women on the site, NK, Satmar, the general attitude toward the state of Israel. This editorial slant, instead of being confined to “opinion” articles (like most other news-reporting bodies), makes its way into what is supposed to be objective news reporting. Regular news articles have become vehicles to disseminate the editors’ hashkafa on Yiddishkeit. Doesn’t have to be a bad thing, as long as readers aware of the situation.
Judging by their comments, some readers comments seem to favor this new broader approach. Many readers seem not to. Personally, I preferred the previous editorial style. I suppose time will tell whether this “broadening” experiment will succeed.
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