{"id":19953,"date":"2016-11-18T17:22:28","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T22:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/putting-the-new-in-news-nyt-reinvents-itself-for-the-digital-age\/"},"modified":"2016-11-18T17:29:14","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T22:29:14","slug":"putting-the-new-in-news-nyt-reinvents-itself-for-the-digital-age","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/putting-the-new-in-news-nyt-reinvents-itself-for-the-digital-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting the \u201cNew\u201d in \u201cNews\u201d: NYT Reinvents itself for the Digital Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alarm rings. Pull yourself out of bed, put the kettle on for coffee, splash tap water on your face. Slippers on, and you stride out the front door to grab the morning paper.<\/p>\n

How many of us still read the physical paper in the mornings? The traditional print media paradigm has completely shifted with the advent of digital media. Millennials and Gen Z\u2019ers consume articles on their morning commutes, in between meetings or classes, and even on the toilet.<\/p>\n

The New York Times (NYT) is facing fundamental industry disruption. It needs to both update its business model, to compete with the content and value that new digital-media outlets provide, and update its operating model to deliver this content in a way that aligns with the modern reader\u2019s lifestyle.<\/p>\n

In the following paragraphs, I\u2019ll discuss how the NYT has adjusted aspects of its business and operating models from Before Digital Era (B.D.E.) to After Digital Era (A.D.E.).<\/p>\n

BUSINESS MODEL: DECONSTRUCTING THE VALUE OF THE NYT AS CONTENT PROVIDER<\/strong><\/p>\n

Revenues<\/strong><\/p>\n

B.D.E. In terms of subscription revenues, readers paid for annual newspaper delivery service. In terms of advertising revenues, organizations or individuals took out \u201cclassified\u201d advertisements and paid based on the page\u2019s prominence and the amount of space \u201crented.\u201d<\/p>\n

A.D.E. NYT offers a \u2018freemium\u2019 tier with 10 articles per month at no charge to compete with other online substitutes such as The Huffington Post, while full subscribers pay between $3.75-$9.40\/month for various levels of access and numbers of devices.1<\/sup> Regarding advertising revenues, the NYT parses sophisticated information about which articles readers are clicking on and their search history (e.g. via Google AdWords) to push them hyper-individualized promotions. NYT is paid by advertisers based on price-per-click metrics.<\/p>\n

\"nyt-all-products\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Content development<\/strong><\/p>\n

B.D.E. Newspapers developed a broad range of content to attract a wide and diverse set of readers.2<\/sup><\/p>\n

A.D.E. The NYT developed a dedicated strategy team to oversee, track, and guide its new digital content-creation process. Today, the team focuses on tailoring content to unique readers and stitching together more deliberate narratives. For example, experimenting with time-based journalism, the paper published a collection of videos on love and stories\u00a0by Nick Kristof on sex trafficking on Valentine\u2019s Day. Internally, the company assessed that \u201cboth were huge hits, exclusively because our readers shared them on social\u2026 Very few articles from a typical day\u2019s paper will garner this much traffic in a month.\u201d1<\/sup> The paper also uses structurization of data \u2013 categorization based on geographic location, timeliness, story threads, types, etc. \u2013 to enable readers to curate their own experiences. This has been generally successful: \u201cJust adding structured data, for example, immediately increased traffic to our recipes from search engines by 52 percent.\u201d3<\/sup><\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-11-18-at-5-23-22-pm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

OPERATING MODEL: REIMAGINING NEWSPAPER DELIVERY<\/strong><\/p>\n

B.D.E. Consumers subscribed to the NYT and received a physical newspaper on their doorsteps. Substitutes included other newspapers, e.g. the Wall Street Journal or the local paper, or television news. There was a single daily point of interaction with the user, at the time of delivery.<\/p>\n

A.D.E. Readers open the NYT website or app when they have a free moment and feel an inclination to read the news, or are directed to an article from friend or other webpage.<\/p>\n

The NYT has invested heavily in direct-to-consumer digital channels that will create numerous \u201ctouches\u201d with readers throughout a day. According to the NYT\u2019s Digital Strategy, \u201conly one-third of readers visit the home page; the rest are directed to specific articles by friends or other media.\u201d3<\/sup> This demonstrates the importance of making news more modular, shareable, and digestible. The paper has created \u201cmorning digests\u201d that contain \u201ceverything you need to know to get through today,\u201d and bite-sized journalism on key topics, such as \u201cTransition Briefing: Here\u2019s a quick guide to Donald Trump\u2019s new picks [for Cabinet].\u201d It has also invested heavily in data visualization and infographics. 4<\/sup><\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-11-18-at-1-20-26-pm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

However, not all of the NYT\u2019s sashays into the digital era have been successful. The free NYT Cooking app and The Scoop, an app-based guide to NYC, were both eliminated. Most recently, in August 2016, NYT announced it was shutting down its NYT Now app. NYT Now offered a \u201ccurated subset of daily articles in a mobile-friendly, lower-priced package [$8\/month]\u2026 including morning and evening news briefings, bullet-point lists and a more conversational tone,\u201d but never caught on.5<\/sup><\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-11-16-at-11-44-51-pm\"<\/a> \"screen-shot-2016-11-16-at-11-45-33-pm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The paper has a long way to go. Unlike digital media sites like BuzzFeed, HuffPo, or Quartz, the NYT was not born \u201cdigital first.\u201d While 60% of BuzzFeed\u2019s traffic comes from social channels, less than 10% of NYT traffic does. As the barriers to entering the digital content space continue to fall, new competitors are emerging from unexpected places, including Facebook and Snapchat. NYT will have to find a way to stand for both quality of and access to information in the digital age.<\/p>\n

\"cartoon\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Word count: 794 Words)<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. New York Times Subscriptions. https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscriptions\/Multiproduct\/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=67JJ6&gclid=CP3t0cP0stACFRpMDQodn58JmA<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Anthony, Scott. \u201cWhat the Media Industry Can Teach Us About Digital Business Models.\u201d 性视界 Business Review. June 10, 2015. https:\/\/hbr.org\/2015\/06\/what-the-media-industry-can-teach-us-about-digital-business-models<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. New York Times Innovation Report. The New York Times. March 24, 2014.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. The Author\u2019s first-hand research on the NYT app.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \n
          1. Ember, Sydney. \u201cNYT Now To Be Shelved.\u201d New York Times. August 19, 2016. http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/08\/19\/business\/media\/new-york-times-to-shelve-nyt-now-app.html<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

             <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Can the NYT, a traditional print newspaper, catapult itself into the digital-first era? 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