You could be correct.
I believe I read he needed to raise roughly $100 million a month in order to offset the money he could have received from public financing and the DNC. Maybe the NYT is publishing this as a fund raising effort to get the Obambi supporters to dig a little deeper and send their money in right away.
That's one part of it. The other is to draw the magical one's critics out into the open. The critics will get in their shots now while it appears that the magical one is hurting for donations. They'll mock him and point out his apparent flaws. Then, with a sprinkle of pixie dust, everything is better again. The magical one will be flush with cash and his critics will be left holding the bag. In any case, I wouldn't place too much stock in this bit of bad news for obama.