I spoke to feels the same way. To be fair, the Times' color does seem better than most newspapers manage to achieve, but it's still considerably worse than that of any magazine. Monday morning's Maria Callas looked sort of like a Japanese anime cartoon, and the sports stuff seemed airbrushed and crudely oversaturated. Newsprint simply can't hold a much better image than that. There's more to the decision, of course, than a concern for the aesthetics of photojournalism.
Color brings in younger readers.
It also appeals to advertisers. Moss is a classic example. In exchange, they're spending their visual inheritance. There's a reason why newspaper photography works better in black and white, and it's not just a matter of tradition or taste. But there are effects better achieved in gray-scale.