The NYT reporter publicly whined about working on this for a year, only to have Trump Jr tweet out the main part of the story. In order for what you've concluded to be true, the NYT and Russia would have to be the parties colluding actively on the release timing.
I would expect the NYT to have someone stationed at Trump Tower
monitoring who goes in and out.
That person probably noted the Russians going in,
but did not know if they were going to meet the Trumps,
or one of the tenants in the building, such as the Bank of China.
The reporter spent a year trying to find out who the Russians were there to meet,
when (I suspect) Russia tipped off the paper that the meeting took place.
The NYT did admit that they had the email chain
and were holding onto it,
before Don Jr. beat them to the release.
I would also expect that the NYT management
would keep their own reporters in the dark,
because the management routinely colludes with
Wall Street fat cats on all kinds of stories.
We should always remember:
The MSM does NOT practice actual journalism.
The MSM is the propaganda arm of the ruling clique.