punctuation as visual design

I saw a troubling item in this morning's NY TIMES in Peter Lewis' column.
He was providing an internet address (it was where to get Netscape
Navigator) and it was written this way:

info {at} mcom.com

I was struck. Where is the cute little _@_?

Is this simply a mistake or is the TIMES trying to create a new net
syntax and use more paper to boot---5 characters instead of 1---or an I
just behind the time?

I thought it odd, in any case.

David Sucher
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