Yes, The Times and Journal Are Sending You More Push Notifications

Ad Age reporting:
The country's two largest digital newspapers have been sending more push notifications to mobile readers lately, and not just because of the recent eruption in urgent national news.

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal -- No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in terms of U.S. digital circulation, according to the Alliance for Audited Media -- are putting more emphasis on using mobile alerts to distribute breaking news stories and promote their mobile apps.
News publishers have long considered push notifications, which pop up on phone and tablet screens, too intrusive to use more than sparingly. In recent months, however, The Journal and Times have reconsidered that stance and started using them more often.
"We felt comfortable that our breaking news alerts have been well-received by readers and that we may have been a little too stringent about what alerts we should have been sending," said Jonathan Ellis, deputy editor of digital platforms at The Times, which has revised its guidelines on the subject. "More frequently, we're asking ourselves the question 'Should this be a mobile push alert?'"
The change corresponds to in an increase in mobile readership at both newspapers. The Times more than doubled its number of unique visitors on iOS and Android devices over the last year, to 14.3 million in March from some 6 million in March 2012, according to comScore figures encompassing both app users and visitors on the mobile web. The Journal's mobile uniques increased to 4.6 million from from 2.1 million over the same time period.
http://adage.com/article/media/times-sending-push-notifications/241082/