New York Times Digital Case Study

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History

The New York Times has been around since 1851 when former New York Tribune staffers, George Jones and Henry Raymond, founded it. With the onset of “yellow journalism” by competing newspapers causing the newspaper to lose ground, the newspaper was ultimately purchased by Tennessee newspaperman Adolph Ochs in 1896. In 1944, the company began to diversify with the purchase of two New York City radio stations. Following many more acquisitions, in 1992 The New York Times purchased Affiliated Publications, the owner of The Boston Globe.

The time is now 1995; the internet is slowly evolving, and just as the company survived the arrival of television and other technology so it must with the internet. Convinced the internet will have a positive effect on the company; four employees were assigned to the website project. In a later show of further commitment to the internet, the company hired an interactive media expert to be the president of the future New York Times Digital (NYTD) website: NYTimes.com. Similar to other news organizations, The New York Times set up a barrier between the business and editorial sections of the newspaper to maintain editorial independence. However, the president of NYTD is to report to both the general manager and editor of the newspaper.

The industry has had its share of ups and downs. During the early years, the press took off with the creation of the penny press. Another insurgence of profitability came with the onset of “yellow journalism.” However, revenues declined during the Great Depression and new competition from radio hurt the industry. From 1929 to 1933, advertising revenue dropped 45%. Then in the 1960s, with the popularity of television, the newspaper industry took another...

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...cause NYTD was primarily a software operation. Many of the executives were skeptical about letting another department use the New York Times brand without them having ultimate control over the quality of the product they produced. New York Times has been a respected name for over one hundred and fifty years it did not want to just release its popularity and success to just anyone. The quality of the product produced by NYTD needed to be equal to or better than New York Times itself.

Although NYTD pays a substantial $5,000,000 per year for New York Times content, the newspaper must maintain significant control over the editing of its content for use on the internet. No matter what happens, NYTD will be in some semblance part of the newspaper as a value added product.

http://digitalstrategies.tuck.dartmouth.edu/cds-uploads/case-studies/pdf/20006_NYTDigital.pdf

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