Twelve NYU undergrads in Professor Jay Rosen’s spring 2015 class, “The Future of the New York Times,” have been looking into efforts at the Times to secure its future in a world that has changed radically for all media companies. (Fuller description here.) The next task the class will tackle involves reviewing Times products that are, in one way or another, “future-facing.” Each student will research a key product, become a regular user of it, compare it to similar or competing products, and write an opinionated review for this site.
NYT Now
New York Times Cooking
New York Times iPad App
The Chinese Website of NYT
Sub-brand: The Upshot
Times Talks, Events,
Conferences
New York Times Magazine
Recommendation Engines
& Personalization
As a long time cable industry participant (45 years +), it is interesting to see your class confront the shift from silos (sports doesn’t talk to advertisers doesn’t talk to politics) to an attempt to integrate. Might be nice to take a look at the accelerating changes in video media coupled with the even still-accelerating shift to broadband/IP delivery. Additionally, the entirety of media seems to be converging. (And long ago, when I joined the launch board of what became Tech TV, I thought the only convergence between a TV set and a computer might be a lot of glass on the floor. Nice to wrong in a big way.)
I’m sure it’s good to compare things for the venerable Times, even though it probably has a pretty good fix on its current offerings, but I sure would like to see students who are studying journalism and related subjects in schools in or near smaller communities give the same kind of assistance to their local newspapers. That’s where help is really needed or am I naive in thinking smaller-circulation local newspapers are worth the effort in light of the trend toward their general diminishment in the years ahead?