When The New York Times Metro section reorganized earlier this year—one staffer described it as "retrenchment"—and killed off the regional bureaus in favor of more city-centric beats, one senior newsroom source told The Observer that there was an idea for a sex beat for Metro.

In a Q&A on nytimes.com today, Joe Sexton (hold your jokes please!) seems to confirm that.

When answering a question about Metro's new mission, Mr. Sexton said: "Jim Dwyer, our gifted About New York columnist, likes to say there are three great, inextinguishable human needs: food, sex and stories. We're going to keep the stories coming, likely including many about food and sex (don't wince yet!)"

Neal Ungerleider of FishBowlNY is reporting that the New York Times "has made an offer to buy" the New York and Boston editions of the free daily Metro. Catherine Mathis, spokeswoman for the Times, said she couldn't comment to Mr. Ungerleider because of company policy.  read more »