I always assumed that the NYT Bestseller List was a marketing vehicle that you could buy into. Not that it didn't track legitimate "bestsellers." I just figured you could pay to play too. If people really care about knowing that for sure then I guess it's nice to see some actual proof of it.
It wouldn't be much use if it was widely-known to be easily gamed. Even as a revenue vehicle, the NYT would do better (at least in the past decade) to make these books pay for ads the old-fashioned way.
