If the web is our future, we either need to master the medium ourselves, or embrace those who have, or both. By no means am I suggesting The Times is anywhere near close to that point, but we have taken several important steps in that direction. Sadly, those baby steps place us far, far ahead of the pack. There is time to change, but, again, few media organizations seem willing or able.
Mastering the medium - something the NYT does so with Flash and AS3. They are really one of the few who have mastered flash, most totally abuse it.