When I came to The Times in 2012, I felt that it was a newspaper that had a strong digital element. Now, I feel like it’s actually a digital media company that happens to put out a newspaper.”
–Margaret Sullivan, public editor of The New York Times
Twelve NYU undergrads in Professor Jay Rosen’s spring 2015 class, “The Future of the New York Times,” have been looking deeply into efforts at the Times to find a secure and sustainable future in a radically changed world.
They have pored over what has been written on the subject. They have heard from people who work at the New York Times, and people who recently left. They have learned from other close readers of the institution, like Nikki Usher of George Washington University, author of Making News at the New York Times, and Ken Doctor, who writes about the digital transformation of the press for Nieman Lab and Capital New York. And they have read and re-read a key document: The New York Times innovation report, which every speaker in class has mentioned.
Now, midway through the term, they are ready to share some of the results of their work with others who are interested in the future of the New York Times. That is what this site is for. The students designed and built it themselves. They produced the video trailer and researched the material.
The first task the class undertook was to try to classify, name and describe all the major efforts the Times has underway to prepare the institution for what is ahead. So far the class has found 13 distinct efforts of this type. They are found on the “future-facing initiatives” tab. They range from “the mobile imperative” to “making the Times into a global product” to “overcoming a print vs. digital divide.” Each one is described in a few paragraphs — with quotes and illustrations.
This list of 13 future-facing initiatives is a work in progress — it may be revised as the class learns more — but it has been vetted with several Times insiders, people involved in changing the institution, and they said it does a good job of covering the available data. Which is not to say the list is comprehensive (yet.) But it is getting there. If you have an idea for how it can be improved, email the class or tweet at us.
On the links tab (also a work-in progress) the class has listed the key articles for understanding each of the 13 future-facing initiatives. No repository like has existed online… until now. Know of an article or study that belongs on these lists? Send it to the class.
The next task the class will tackle involves reviewing products that are themselves “future-facing.” Each student will research a key product, become a regular user of it, compare it to similar products and write an opinionated review, which will be posted on the site. Those assessments are not complete yet (the assignments were given out March 6) but you can see the list of products that will be reviewed here.
We’re actively soliciting feedback to make this site better. Want to get in touch? Join the conversation or Drop us a line.
ABOUT US
Professor Jay Rosen
Journalism Professor and Media Critic
Laura Adkins
Economics and Math & Computer Science, 2016
will be reviewing the NYTimes Homepage
Tommy Collison
Journalism and Politics, 2017
will be reviewing the NYTimes on the iPad
Felipe De La Hoz
Journalism and Politics, 2017
will be reviewing the Upshot, a sub-brand
of the Times
Stephanie Eckardt
Journalism and Romance Languages, 2015
will be reviewing Modernization of Times magazines
Shira Hanau
Politics Rights and Development, 2018
will be reviewing the NYT Now App
Elif Koc
Computer Science and Journalism, 2017
will be reviewing Outreach to Developers and NYT Open
Jonny Levin
Film and Television, 2015
will be reviewing the Recommendation Engines
Savannah O’Leary
Film & Television Production and History, 2015
will be reviewing Times Talks, Events, and Conferences
Shawn Paik
Journalism and History, 2017
will be reviewing the Youtube and Video Efforts
Wendy Shyu
Journalism and Economics, 2016
will be reviewing the NYTimes Chinese language site
Elisabeth Turner
Media and Feminist Criticism, 2017
will be reviewing Native Advertising
Hannah Weverka
Media Culture and Communications, 2017
will be reviewing the NYT Cooking App
Wow, you guys have done fabulous work since I visited your class in mid-January. (I teach the Innovations in Journalism class in Studio20.) Your list of NYT projects already is far more comprehensive and detailed than anything I’d seen. I thought this was going to be your end-of-semester work product, and you barely halfway through the term! Nice work.
The issue the Times faces that you are not covering is what to cut. Assuming revenues will not increase fast enough in the next few years to make up for print advertising decreases, the Times has to reduce costs and redeploy available resources to some of the areas on your list. But that means reducing efforts the company is now making. We see they are thinking about that issue. Autos and Home were eliminated. But there is no public discussion/feedback on where the Times should reduce its efforts. If you advocate The Times doing more in some areas, you should indicate where it can reduce its current efforts. When the Times started its national edition, there was one page devoted to Sports. Editors at that time clearly thought Sports was a minor part of the paper. Lee Ann Schreiber, anyone? Maybe Sports is expendable. Perhaps it makes more sense to put additional reporters in Asia and fewer in the Midwest. Can The Book Review remain a weekly section with almost no ads? Should T and the Magazine be combined to reduce the Magazine publication costs by 14 issues a year? This program could spur discussion of the topic by adding it to your list.
Rock On!
Totally dig what you all are doing with this space. Stay after it.
It has been so great to watch this site evolve over the last few months.
Your students really flushed out the important details for each challenge affecting The New York Times (and other media orgs), and in doing so, created a more accurate picture of the media industry in the 21st Century than most media columnists or publications have yet to.
And congratulations to Jay for making this happen. It is ambitious projects like these that set great examples for every student who participated or followed along in the building of this site.