In this Nieman Lab interview with CEO Mark Thompson, Ken Doctor asks the right questions and takes us into a journey of discovery about the success story that The Times is——contrary to what President Trump continues to tell us as he describes the newspaper as “the failing Times”.
The facts
4.9 million. That’s the total number of New York Times subscribers overall, between print and digital. That’s already three times its peak in the good old days of print.
4.1 million. That’s roughly how many paying news customers the Times has across digital (3,197,000 subscriptions) and print (869,599 average Sunday circulation).
Highlights of the interview
In Thompson’s words, it is all about the brand:
It’s (all) branded, and it’s very congruent with the brand, and we’re pretty jealous of the quality boundaries and the seriousness boundaries of the brand. Even our food coverage is rather Times-ian, in a way: the quality of the writing, the recipes we tested 50 times.
The Times’ winning combo
I liked the reference Thompson makes to beat journalism and investigative journalism and the investment the Times continues to make so that these two areas thrive:
We think it’s a virtuous thing to do, and we’d like, if we can, to figure out ways in which we could play a part helping more news organizations do that. That’s another conversation, but we believe at the state level and the city level, accountability journalism — which would be a mixture of beat journalism and investigative journalism — is incredibly important. We’re certainly not beginning to claim that we could do all of that ourselves.
Get more readers to register
The last takeaway for me in this interview is how the Times is now moving more aggressively to gather data from its non-subscriber readers. There are lessons for other publishers here:
DOCTOR: You recently announced a change in your paywall.
THOMPSON: We made this significant change in July. We’re asking pretty much everyone who wants to read more than one article to register and log on, after which they get a greater number of articles.
Launch party for The Story in Zurich
From Monocle Weekend
THE INTERROGATOR / EDITION 30
https://monocle.com/minute/2019/09/21/
Mario García
Editorial consultant Mario García has advised the most important newsrooms in the world on design – and how best adapt to a digital transition. More than 700 publications, from The Wall Street Journal to the South China Morning Post, have received his strategic steer. Other than being an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, he also runs his own consultancy firm: García Media. Nowadays his speciality is how digital devices influence narrative structure and consumption; his latest book, The Story, was written specifically to be read on a phone. Here, though, he confesses to a few analogue pleasures.
What they are saying about The Story!
The Story is here!
You can now download my new mobile storytelling book, The Story, from Apple Books at $6.99
This is Book 1 of a Trilogy! The other two books coming soon.
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-story-volume-i/id1480169411
The newspaper remains the most powerful source of storytelling on the planet. But technology threatens its very existence. To survive, the Editor must transform, adapt, and manage the newsroom in a new way. Order The Story by Mario Garcia, chief strategist for the redesign of over 700 newspapers around the world.
My chat with in Monocle Radio
Listen to my chat in Monocle Radio’s The Stack: Latest episode‘The Face’ and ‘The Story’:We welcome the return of the print version of ‘The Face’ and talk to legendary newspaper designer Mario Garcia about his latest book, ‘The Story’.
https://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-stack/368/play/
My interview with CNN en Español
I was a guest in the program Encuentro, hosted by Guillermo Arduino daily at CNN en Español. The interview was about how we read on mobile devices and my introduction of my new mobile storytelling book, The Story, to a Spanish-language audience.
Mario’s speaking engagements
November 20, 2019
Presentation of The Story in Zurich, Switzerland, at launch party (by invitattion only). Sponsored by Monocle The Stack.
March 13, 2020
Keynote presentation at the National Media College Association Spring Convention, New York City, NY>
Order print edition of The Story
You can order the print edition of my new mobile storytelling book, The Story, from Amazon already here:
An interview of interest
http://www.itertranslations.com/blog/2019/3/11/fd60ybflpvlqrgrpdp5ida5rq0c3sp
TheMarioBlog post # 3160