The-Full-New-York-Times-Innovation-Report

Our reporters and columnists are eager to connect of this conversation. We recently launched thewith readers in this way but many are going to oth- “What We’re Reading” email, which curates recom-er platforms to talk about the process behind their mendations of good journalism from around thework. A recent case in point: Jon Eligon wrote a web from Times editors and writers. We are offeringgripping first-person account on Facebook about his a new “story behind the story” feature for premiumexperience as a black reporter approaching a white subscribers. Similarly, the new Opinion product issupremacist in North Dakota. focused on fostering reader-columnist discussions. The good news is we are moving to capture someOPENING UPReaders want to connect with Times journalists — to get the backstory, learn what we are reading, and join the conversation.50 Growing Our Audience | Connection

Opportunity:User-Generated ContentUser-generated content, which has provided our The Journal, are moving in the same direction.competitors with a low-cost way to expand their They have serious quality lapses as a result, butsites and deepen loyalty, has proved to be a diffi-cult challenge at The Times. also big wins and a growing and engaged audience. The Times has considerations our competitors don’t But we already are home to one of the most cele- — namely, our brand promises readers that every-brated forums of user-generated content in publish- thing they has been carefully vetted. We are oneing: Op-Eds. of the few outlets where even comments meet this standard. In the digital world, though, we are trailing badlybehind our competitors. Many publishers have de- But a new generation of startups is training thecided to become platforms, as well. Huffington Post next generation of readers to expect participation.and Medium have experienced huge growth in partbecause they have become a platform for opinion “Our readers do want to show off and what wepieces and guest essays. Others, including CNN and could offer them is the imprimatur of greatness,” said Leslie Kaufman, who covers media. SANDBOXES The Huffington Post’s platform allows anyone to publish content on its site. Medium enhanced that model with design and curation. Storify lets users assemble Tweets and videos into storylines. 51

Experiment: term, would help The Times solidify its position asExpand Op-Eds the destination for sophisticated conversation. The world’s smartest and most influential people haveOne digital strategist compared the world of online long been eager to write for us for the modest pay-engagement to a cocktail party. Most people, she day of $150 a piece. These are often some of ournoted, don’t want to talk to strangers. They want to best-read works — and often provide us with world-talk to their friends or important people. beating scoops. Facebook is handling the friend part of that equa- Imagine if the Arts section had daily Op-Eds fromtion. The Times is well-positioned to play host to im- leading figures in dance, theater, movies and archi-portant people. tecture. Or if David Leonhardt’s new venture includ- ed daily Op-Eds from smart minds in politics and We receive dozens of Op-Ed submissions every academia. Or if the Science section became the lead-day from top thinkers and leaders, and we publish ing arena for ideas from scientists and philosophers.only a fraction of them. Some of this is quality con-trol. But in many cases, we are simply following the Controversial? Metro does this with Metropolitanconstraints of print. Diary. Business, Sports, Styles and Book Review do this, as well, with guest essays and other user-sub- The Times has already expanded our footprint in mitted features.this area through our new video feature, Op-Docs.The quality of submissions and audience interest Gina Kolata said she frequently receives well-both have been extremely high, making Op-Docs written submissions that are too narrowly focusedone of our most popular and praised verticals. for the newspaper but perfect for Science. “Often I’m getting people saying, ‘Can I write an Op-ed?’ Most We should experiment with expanding our Op-Ed of their stuff goes nowhere, but if it did, there’d beofferings to include specific sections and verticals, an audience for it.”opening up our report to leaders in fields such aspolitics, business and culture. We would recommend starting with one or two desks and establishing best practices. These guest essays, to use the more conventional READERS WHO WRITE The Times is an early pioneer of user-generated content. We stirred controversy in 1976 by giving bylines to readers who penned Metropolitan Diary entries. We’ve printed Op-Eds from the likes of Angelina Jolie and Vladimir Putin. And we publish letters to the editor every day.52 Growing Our Audience | Connection

Opportunity:EventsOur events operation is improving but still has a we’ve made little effort to scale them. Those wholong way to go to meet the standards of The New have studied the industry say that the most success-York Times. ful approach is to take such events on tour, with multiple stops for the same line up, or to hold a Our events are typically built around industry is- single large annual event. Instead, we’re buildingsues that are of interest to both sponsors and corpo- each of ours as a one-off.rate audiences. Many executives and editors at competing outlets Events can be about connecting with readers as said that The Times is in a unique position to in-much as they are about making money. crease and retain subscribers by shedding its mod- esty and putting forward its best asset: its talent. NPR has made its journalists the centerpiece ofshows that travel to large concert spaces in cities and Experiment: New Eventscollege towns. The Atlantic hosts the well-regardedand lucrative Aspen Ideas Festival. The New Yorker The Times should create reader-focused events thatreportedly makes a huge amount of its annual rev- elevate our brand while meeting our standards.enue from its fun and engaging annual festival. Imagine a New York Times Readers Festival: There is no reason that the space filled by TED An annual event in NYC that anyone registeredTalks, with tickets costing $7,500, could not have on our site could pay to attend, with a few segmentsbeen created by The Times. “One of our biggest con- open only to subscribers and premium subscribers.cerns is that someone like The Times will start a real Possible sessions include: panels on the top storiesconference program,” said a TED executive. of the year, Q&A’s with reporters and editors on cer- tain topics, training sessions on writing, photogra- Univision recently hosted town halls by report- phy and video, talks by a handful of outsiders whoers about topics that consistently ranked as the wrote the most-read Op-Eds of the year, a multi-most popular on its website and channels. “We got media showcase of our best videos, photos and in-around 8,000 people to discuss better ways to man- teractives. We should not underestimate interest inage personal finances,” said Enrique Acevedo, who Times reporters and journalism.hosted the event. But before we pursue any of these options, thenewsroom needs to be more involved in thinkingthrough our events strategy. This is more urgent because in recent years theevents industry has shifted in ways that mirrorchanges in the newspaper industry: away from a to-tal dependence on advertising and toward readerswilling to pay. Rob Grimshaw, the head of digital strategy atFT.com who has made events an extension of hisjob, said his newsroom now views conference at-tendees much as it does digital subscribers – theyare all simply members of its broader audience.Our best effort on this front is Times Talks, but 53

Getting to Know Our ReadersTo provide more relevant and meaningful user ex- store the information in ways that can be shared orperiences, we need to first better understand our retrieved later. For example, when Libby Rosenthalreaders — who they are and how they use our site. tried to email all the people who had commented on her first medical-cost story to let them know about a Currently, our capabilities for collecting reader follow-up, someone had to manually pull every com-data are limited. he information is dispersed hap- menter’s email address from registration data. KJhazardly across the organization and rarely put to Dell’Antonia paid an assistant out of her own pocketuse for purposes other than marketing. And the to go through years of her old emails to pull readernewsroom, which is perhaps best positioned to addresses to let them know about her newsletter.champion this effort because of its close connectionto readers, has not played a leading role. Readers, though, are eager to share information if they think it will help us or them. In stories where The smart use of reader data has been essential readers are encouraged to leave their email ad-to the success of companies like Google, Facebook dresses to signal that they would be willing to speakand Amazon. But traditional media companies are with Times reporters, almost 90 percent agree. Ouralso figuring out this game. The Guardian, for ex- competitors have pursued this strategy to build upample, recently launched its “Known Strategy,” with reader databases that can be used for both reportingthe newsroom leading the effort to improve how it and promotion. We should pursue this in a scalable,collects, archives and uses reader data. organized fashion in consultation with the business side. “I don’t think we really understood the power ofthe data and the audience understanding that came MANUAL LABORwith the subscription model,” said The FinancialTimes’s C.E.O., John Ridding. “We’ve been able to When Libby Rosenthal wanted to alert readers about a new story inbuild a system of understanding our readers.” her series, someone had to pull the email addresses by hand from comments posted on her previous articles. The exercise pointed LinkedIn offers a good example of how to use to an obvious need to create a tool to collect those addressesreader data in smart ways. Last year, it sent out automatically and help cement our relationships with readers.an email to hundreds of thousands of users: “Con-gratulations, you have one of the top 5 percent mostviewed LinkedIn profiles.” Other sites, like TripAd-visor, tell unpaid contributors when their work isbeing widely read and commented on. These feed-back mechanisms increase loyalty. Because the Times has a paywall and has recentlytaken new steps to encourage readers to register,we’re even better positioned to collect such data. Butwe don’t do things that our competitors do, like askreaders whether they would be willing to be contact-ed by reporters or if they are willing to share somebasic information about their hometown, alma ma-ter and industry so we can send them articles aboutthose topics. When the newsroom does seek reader data, toooften we build one-off systems and then we don’t54 Growing Our Audience | Connection

Chapter 2StrengtheningOur Newsroom Innovation  March 24, 2014

56 Strenghtening Our Newsroom |

Introduction flow, organizational structures, recruitment efforts and strategy. It is hard to believe that only seven years ago, TheNew York Times housed its digital and print opera- As one digital leader at The Times noted, thetions in separate buildings. newspaper sets the gold standard not just because we employ world-class journalists but because we Since that time, the newsroom has undergone a also empower them with a world-class support sys-slow, steady evolution. Each year, our traditional tem. But we have not yet modernized that supportand digital journalists become more integrated and system for our digital journalism. “Aspirations havemore aligned. Each year, our leaders invest more outpaced our technology, templates and workflow,”resources into our digital operations. Each year, we said another digital leader.produce more groundbreaking digital journalism. We must move quickly. Our competitors, which Despite these concerted efforts, we have not not long ago were mostly newspapers that lagged farmoved far enough or fast enough. There is a split in behind us in digital, are growing in number, sophis-our digital readiness that is making it harder for us tication and gaining ground.to thrive in this shifting landscape. The challenge for us is that the new battleground The digital journalism that readers see each day is is not where we are strongest — the journalism it-exceptional: Graphics, Design and Interactive News self — but in this second arena that is largely out ofhave become industry-leading operations and home sight. Because our digital competitors adapt fasterto some of our most talented journalists. But we’ve to changing technology and trends, their lesser jour-made far less progress in the areas that readers can’t nalism often gets more traction than our superiorsee. These are the eat-your-spinach process and journalism. They are ahead of us in building im-structure questions we often perceive as getting in pressive support systems for digital journalists, andthe way of our daily jobs: publishing systems, work- that gap will grow unless we quickly improve our The Past... 57

capabilities. Meanwhile, our journalism advantage fore we finish something, we need to start planningis shrinking as more of these upstarts expand their for version 2.0 and 3.0.newsrooms. The good news is that our journalism remains The previous chapter, which explored the urgent rock solid and our financial position is stable. In-need to grow our audience, discussed the impor- side The Times there is widespread enthusiasm —tance of experimenting, failing, replicability and in- both from the digitally inclined and more traditionalvesting time in the rote work of structured data and journalists — to do what it takes to make this tran-reader data. This chapter focuses more squarely on sition. And on the business side, new talent and aprocess and structure questions and lays out three shared mission of serving readers has created thesteps — immediate, short-term and long-term — we opportunity and enthusiasm to work together andcan pursue to position ourselves to succeed in this find solutions.changing landscape. “This will be a historic year for the media indus- To become more of a digital-first newsroom, we try. Technology is disrupting every distributionhave to look hard at our traditions and push our- platform. Consumers are redefining decades-oldselves in ways that make us uncomfortable. Too of- consumption habits,” wrote Justin Smith, C.E.O.ten we’ve made changes and then breathed sighs of of Bloomberg News, in a recent all-staff memo thatrelief, as if the challenge had been solved. But the echoed similar missives from leaders of media com-pace of change is so fast that the solutions can quick- panies over the last several months. “Seizing thisly seem out of date, and the next challenge is just opportunity will require long-term investment andaround the corner. For example, Times Topics, once a large appetite for transformation, risk, as well as aour smartest bet to win search, seems archaic now, tolerance for intermittent failure.”and social has emerged as the next critical front forpromoting our work. This era demands that even be-...The Present58 Strenghtening Our Newsroom |

Our Proposals, In Brief(This page also appeared in the executive summary.)COLLABORATE WITH BUSINESS-SIDE UNITS FOCUSED ON READER EXPERIENCEThis shift would provide the newsroom, virtually for better integration. Recent initiatives, includingovernight, with many of the necessary skills and NYT Now, have shown the benefits of collaborationinsights to take our digital report to the next level. across these departments. We are not proposing aThere are a number of departments and units, most wholesale reorganization. But we do believe simplyof which are considered part of the business side, issuing a new policy ­— collaborating with our col-that are explicitly focused on the reader experience, leagues focused on reader experience is encouragedincluding Design, Technology, Consumer Insight and expected —­ would send a powerful signal andGroup, R&D and Product. unlock a huge store of creative energy and insights. These functions represent a clear opportunityCREATE A NEWSROOM STRATEGY TEAM team would keep newsroom leaders apprised of competitors’ strategies, changing technology andMany newsroom leaders are so consumed with the shifting reader behavior. It would help track proj-demands of the daily report that they have little time ects around the company that affect our digital re-to step back and think about long-term questions. port, help the masthead set and evaluate prioritiesWhen we were simply a newspaper, this singular fo- and conduct occasional deep dives to answer spe-cus made sense. But we must now juggle print, the cific questions. And it would facilitate desk-level ex-web, apps, newsletters, news alerts, social media, periments and communicate the results back to thevideo, an international edition and a range of stand- newsroom to ensure we’re exploring new areas andalone products. learning from our efforts. Our suggestion is to create a small strategy teamwith the central role of advising the masthead. TheMAP A STRATEGY TO MAKE THE NEWSROOM A TRULY DIGITAL-FIRST ORGANIZATIONStories are typically filed late in the day. Our mobile sively reorganized around a digital-first rather thanapps are organized by print sections. Desks metic- a print-first schedule. The health and profitabilityulously lay out their sections but spend little time of our print paper means we don’t yet need to fol-thinking about social strategies. Traditional report- low them down this path. But it is essential to begining skills are the top priority in hiring and promo- the work of questioning our print-centric traditions,tion. The habits and traditions built over a century conducting a comprehensive assessment of our digi-and a half of putting out the paper are a powerful, tal needs, and imagining the newsroom of the future.conservative force as we transition to digital ­­— none This means reassessing everything from our rostermore so than the gravitational pull of Page One. of talent to our organizational structure to what we do and how we do it. Some of our traditional competitors have aggres- 59

1Reader ExperienceThe wall dividing the newsroom and business side digital report to the next level.has served The Times well for decades, allowing one Working closely with Reader Experience is vital toside to focus on readers and the other to focus onadvertisers. But the growth in our subscription rev- making sure the experience of finding and engagingenue and the steady decline in advertising — as wellas the changing nature of our digital operation — READERS ARE DRIVING OUR GROWTHnow require us to work together. NYT revenue by source. For the first time, both the newsroom and busi-ness side are focused primarily on readers. Exciting Advertising Subscriptions Othernew collaborations are already underway. But ourhistorical divide has not fully adjusted to reflect this 51% 50% 49% 45% 43%shift. 43% 44% 45% 50% 52% We still have a large and vital advertising armthat should remain walled off. But the many busi- 6% 6% 6% 6% 5%ness-side departments and roles that are focused on 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013readers — which we refer to as “Reader Experience”throughout this report — need to work more closely WHY “READER EXPERIENCE”?with the newsroom, instead of being kept at arm’slength, so that we can benefit from their expertise. The departments that need to interact with both the news and business sides are sometimes called “operational departments,” These departments and roles, which include large “neutral departments” or “green-light departments.” But wesegments of Design, Technology, Consumer Insight believe “Reader Experience” better describes the work of theseGroup, R&D and Product, are now critical to the departments. It also underscores why we need to work with themnewsroom’s efforts, possessing the skills and in- to fulfill the newsroom’s mission of serving its readers.sights we need to grow our audience and take our60 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Reader Experience

with our journalism is as impressive as the journal- tal operations, since these departments have skillsism itself. And greater cooperation will advance our to build on our digital successes.goals of ensuring that our journalism is adjustingto technological and behavioral shifts, reaching a In the following pages, we will explain the needgrowing audience and landing with maximum im- for a closer relationship between the newsroompact. and Reader Experience. In the discussion section, we will explore the lack of clear lines in our current We want to emphasize that we are not advocating process, the hidden costs of our reluctance to worka huge new bureaucracy, disruptive reorganization, together, and the recent initiatives that have demon-or a newsroom takeover of these departments. We strated the value of collaboration. And in the “howare simply recommending a policy shift that explic- to get there” section, we will offer some suggesteditly declares that Reader Experience roles should be guidelines.treated as an extension of our digital newsroom —allowing for more communication, close collabora- The very first step, however, should be a deliberatetion and cross-departmental career paths. push to abandon our current metaphors of choice — “The Wall” and “Church and State” — which project Such a move would build on the significant im- an enduring need for division. Increased collabora-provement in relations between news and business tion, done right, does not present any threat to ourunder the leadership of Jill, Mark and Arthur as The values of journalistic independence.New York Times newspaper and company have be-come one and the same. Embracing Reader Expe-rience as an extension of the newsroom is also thenext logical step in Jill’s longstanding goal of creat-ing a newsroom with fully integrated print and digi-1. A DIVIDED COMPANY NEWSROOM CONSUMER INSIGHT MARKETING TECHNOLOGY FINANCEIf you were to ask many Times journaliststo draw an org chart of the company, DIGITAL DESIGN ADVERTISINGit might look something like this: the R&D LEGALnewsroom and “business-side” functionson opposite sides of a wall. Even some PRODUCT STRATEGYgroups that are technically part of thenewsroom, like Digital Design, often arethought to be on the business side. Thetwo sides are generally discouraged fromworking together to protect the newsroomfrom financial pressures.2. A SHARED MISSION NEWSROOM CONSUMER INSIGHT MARKETING TECHNOLOGY FINANCEBut in reality, many of these “businessside” groups perform vital functions that DIGITAL DESIGN ADVERTISINGhave nothing to do with advertisers. They R&D LEGALfocus mainly on improving the readerexperience. These groups are building new PRODUCT STRATEGYproducts and the infrastructure to supportour journalism. NYT Now, Cooking, and theNYT5 redesign have shown the benefit ofworking with these colleagues. 61

DiscussionOutside the newsroom, there are many departments more,” said the leader of one of these departments.that are explicitly focused on reader experience. “These are neutral functions that technically live onThese include Design (crafting the reader experi- the business side, but they are not business func-ence), Technology (bringing the reader experience tions; they are operational functions. Developers,to life), Analytics* (understanding the reader ex- designers, product managers — you could make theperience), R&D (imagining how the reader experi- argument that not one of those people belong on theence may change) and Product (crafting a strategy business side.”for combining many of these elements into a single, At many of our competitors, these units report toreader-centric experience). the newsroom or to both sides, just as design andThere are many examples of how these depart- technology do at the Times. Indeed, a central rea-ments have helped the newsroom achieve its goals. son that digital-first organizations like HuffingtonFor example, the newsroom tried and failed for more Post and BuzzFeed have succeeded with lacklusterthan a decade to clear the logistical hurdles involved content is because of their excellent product andin creating a searchable recipe The perception that technology operations, which aredatabase. But a product manager roles were “on a critical parts of their newsrooms.helped make it happen in a mat-ter of months. But at The Times, the current structure dictates that our Read- The newsroom had also strug- different side” was a er Experience experts often cangled to find ways to signal to source of confusion. only guess at, or simply ignore,readers when we had updates to the newsroom’s needs.stories that didn’t quite merit a Consider the Consumer In-new headline or news alert. De- sight Group and Business Intel-sign, working with developers, came up with several ligence, which handle analytics, conduct surveyssolutions, including the new Watching feature for and run focus groups. These groups spend each daythe home page and the update bullets on NYT Now. thinking about and talking to readers. But they haveThese colleagues have specialized skills that most focused almost exclusively on issues like how to in-editors simply do not possess and they are trained in crease subscriptions, largely because the newsroomthe processes of turning ideas into successes. has rarely called on them for help. There are count-Everyone we interviewed in these groups — at all less ways this unit could be helpful: Are people morelevels — told us that they could do their jobs better likely to read our new newsletter if it were sent at 6if they were tied in more with the newsroom and our a.m. or 10 a.m.? Is the newsletter building a loyal au-core report. Indeed, the perception that their roles dience of return readers? What percentage of thosewere “on a different side” was a source of confusion readers make it to the last item?and complaint. Design has long been a critical part of our news-“‘News and business’ doesn’t even capture it any- room. Even so, we heard repeatedly from designers who said they were treated as outsiders. They said*We use “Analytics” as shorthand for Consumer Insight and newsroom editors needed to be more engaged whenBusiness Intelligence. designers are wrestling with major questions about62 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Reader Experience

Ready, Willing And AbleWe have an army of colleagues who are commit-ted to helping deliver cutting-edge journalism andgrowing our audience. A breakdown of the “ReaderExperience” departments:ANALYTICS (Consumer Insight Group and BusinessIntelligence): ~30 peopleThe Analytics groups use data to learn about ourreaders’ changing habits as well as the effectivenessof our advertising and marketing. They also gatherdirect feedback from our readers about what theywant from our apps and websites. This group trans-lates those needs for Product and Design.DIGITAL DESIGN: ~30 peopleDigital design invents, plans and executes newfeatures for our platforms and articles. They workcollaboratively with the newsroom, Product, andMarketing to ensure that every aspect of the readerexperience meets our standards for excellence.TECHNOLOGY: ~445 peopleThis department includes roughly two dozen teamsof engineers who write the code that powers ourpublishing systems, mobile apps, websites and e-commerce infrastructure. They also build and main-tain the digital pipes that keep those applicationsrunning smoothly.PRODUCT (Core, New, Video, Ventures): ~120 peopleProduct managers serve as the link between thenewsroom and the business side, balancing variousrequirements and interests to ensure the best readerexperience in new products like apps or web fea-tures. They have come up with ideas like NYT Nowand work closely with Design, News, Technology,Marketing, Advertising and Customer Insight.RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT: ~8 peopleThe R&D group is a hybrid technology and designgroup with a long-term focus. They develop toolsthat aim to revolutionize the way we gather andpresent news, like using drones to shoot video or de-livering morning headlines on a bathroom mirror. 63

our digital future, like experimenting with person- ed and bulletproofed before it could be presentedalization, rethinking how we organize our content, to the newsroom. And vice versa. This runs directlyand even changing the architecture of stories to counter to best practices, which call for collaborat-meet new needs. ing as early as possible to solve problems. “Both sides actively don’t communicate stuff from their “We can sit around and come up with ideas all day side,” said one Reader Experience leader. “I’ve beenlong up here, but they have no legs without editors,” in meetings when people have been very clear about,said Ian Adelman, our digital design director. ‘We don’t want to bring them in yet.’ That’s how it is — there’s the opposite of transparency. There’s not Collaboration is even more difficult for functions trust.”that are part of the business side. Several people inR&D expressed frustration over not being informed A significant amount of distrust and skepticismof newsroom priorities, leaving them focused mostly stems from speaking slightly different languages.on business-side projects for advertising. At times, People are referring to the same thing when onethey have tried to guess what may be helpful to the side says “content” or “brand” and the other sidenewsroom, but as a result often end up producing says “journalism” or “The New York Times.” Butwork of limited utility. “I’d like to be able to use real these word choices foster perceptions that the busi-information and not make bad assumptions,” said ness side is crassly commercial and uninterested inMatt Boggie, the director of R&D. BUZZFEED’S SECRET WEAPON Part of the problem is that editors often don’t un- Jonah Peretti, the site’s founder, explained how yearsderstand what colleagues who work in these Reader of close collaboration and investment in the dry stuffExperience roles can do to help improve our report. — tools, workflow and process — have helped driveMore fundamentally, though, there is widespread the site’s dizzying growth:concern that it is inappropriate to speak with col-leagues on the business side’s payroll. “The bottom “Our tech team, product team, and data scienceline is that people don’t know the lines,” explained team have built a very powerful publishing platformone masthead editor. that allows us to serve our readers better. We have spent years building publishing formats (lists, quizzes, We heard from editors who said the fear of im- video, longform, short-form, breaking news, photopropriety meant that they actively avoided commu- essays, explainers), stats and analytics, optimizationnicating with business colleagues altogether. Others and testing frameworks, integrations with socialsaid they simply waited for approval — even when platforms, native-mobile apps, and a user-friendly,it slowed down projects — because delays are con- visually pleasing design. This is a massive investmentsidered a lesser evil than the appearance of crossing that is very difficult to replicate, it is part of thelines without permission. reason that the best editorial talent wants to join BuzzFeed, and it creates a virtuous cycle where a “People say to me, ‘You can’t let anyone know growing number of talented people use increasinglyI’m talking to you about this; it has to be under the powerful tools to do their job.”radar,’” said a leader in one Reader Experience de-partment. “Everyone is a little paranoid about beingseen as too close to the business side.” This distance means that employees on each sideare sometimes unaware that they are duplicatingwork or taking opposite approaches to the sameproblem. The lack of communication can be intentional: Weheard from people in these Reader Experience unitswho felt they had to make sure an idea was complet-64 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Reader Experience

the very thing that makes The New York Times so The last year in particular has shown the value ofspecial — or that the newsroom is precious about its collaboration and how quickly productive relation-work and sanctimonious about its values. The fear ships can be formed when people are working sidethat a single stray word can derail a conversation is by side.keenly felt, particularly on the business side. The newsroom requested a member of the Con- More, better and faster communication is need- sumer Insight Group, James Robinson, to work withed. If the masthead were to clearly delineate which Aron Pilhofer on using metrics to help our report.groups and employees can communicate and col- The masthead recently decided to expand the effort.laborate without first seeking permission, colleagueswho reached across the news-business divide could Similarly, Danielle Rhoades Ha from Public Rela-feel more as if they are crossing a state line than nav- tions, who is helping promote our journalism, andigating a national border. Kelly Alfieri from Product, who is helping coordinate the many moving parts involved in our coverage ofA DEEP BENCH the Oscars, Olympics and other tent-pole events, areOur colleagues in various Reader Experience now based in the newsroom. And the movement isdepartments have a vast range of skills to help us in both directions — Brian Hamman, previously agrow our audience and improve our journalism. key member of Interactive News, is now working on the 9th floor.Torben Brooks Evan Sandhaus Libby GeryDirector of User Director of Search, User ExperienceExperience Research Archives & Semantics StrategistTorben has led more than 1,000 Evan is perhaps the most Libby specializes in userinterviews with our readers passionate advocate of structured experience — the art ofto glean insights about their data at The Times. His team understanding reader needs andnews habits. He is an expert ensures that the journalism we designing solutions. She hasat translating the needs of our produce is tagged and archived has used these skills to redesignaudience to our designers, editors for future use. Evan’s work to NYTimes.com and invent theand product managers. build TimesMachine has brought forthcoming “Watching” home life back to millions of old articles. page feature.Dan Blumberg Chris Ladd Reed EmmonsProduct Manager Senior Software Director of Web Engineer DevelopmentDan was a producer and host of Chris is the lead developer for our Reed is the lead developer ofWNYC’s “Morning Edition” before Cooking app and previously was NYT5 and a newcomer to Thejoining The Times to build our our lead iPad developer. He is Times. His team built a flexible“NYT Everywhere” strategy. Dan also a former reporter. How many workflow system that has sharplyhas formed crucial partnerships mobile developers can boast an improved the speed with whichwith Flipboard, Google and others A1 byline in The Boston Globe? we create, test and deploy newto help expand our reach. features on the web. 65

The newsroom mobile team worked closely with initiatives, conceived of and started without inputtheir business counterparts to create a proposal for from Reader Experience colleagues. Months intooverhauling the company’s mobile strategy. That the development of these efforts, Leonhardt andcollaboration gave much more power to recommen- Hulse both worried they were neglecting questionsdations like, “We should take this opportunity to surrounding competitive analysis, audience devel-challenge ourselves about our audience strategy, opment, platform-specific strategies, promotion,namely that our current approach is focused pri- and user testing. But they felt ill-equipped to answermarily on monetizing an existing reader base.” them. The most promising example has been the col- “I had no idea who to reach out to and it neverlaborative efforts, led by New Products under David would have occurred to me to do it,” Leonhardt said.Perpich, that are developing innovative experiments “It would have felt vaguely inappropriate.” (The ad-in mobile-first journalism (NYT Now) and digital dition of Kelly Alfieri, a product manager, to theservice journalism (Cooking). project has helped.) Cliff Levy has paired with Ben French on NYT There is another compelling reason for the news-Now and Sam Sifton has joined forces with Alex room to engage more with Reader Experience: re-MacCallum on Cooking, and each group is support- cruiting and retaining talent. We heard many ex-ed by a multidisciplinary team that includes Design amples of employees who had turned down moreand Technology. Working side by side has increased money elsewhere to work at The Times — develop-trust and created a sense of shared mission, cap- ers, designers and product managers are in particu-tured in their mantra, “Product first, department larly high demand in this digital world — because ofsecond.” In the process they have created tools, like a belief in the value of our journalism.drag-and-drop and location recognition, that will el-evate our whole report. However, we risk losing those employees when we wall them off from our journalism. The divide has “It’s the old world where the publisher and the been jarring for product managers coming from oth-editor work together,” said Sifton. “They each play er organizations where they were considered part oftheir position and support one another. It’s not lions the newsroom. One new product manager who relo-lying down with lambs. It’s a mutually beneficial, cated to the newsroom said she was shocked when asymbiotic relationship.” newsroom colleague told her that her presence was unwelcome because she belonged on “the business This stands in sharp contrast to the old models we side.”sometimes default to, in which one side leads a proj-ect and then simply hands it to the other — the busi- This sense of division has prompted the departureness side saying, “go make this,” or the newsroom of some of our best developers, exacerbating a tal-saying, “go sell this.” SIMILAR GOALS The original effort for what was then called Need Paul Smurl, The Times’s general manager of coreTo Know offers a case study in this unbalanced ap- digital products, recently sent an email to his teamproach. Initially, the project did not have an edi- defining their mission. It bears some resemblance totor to help shape the vision, which led to a weaker the newsroom’s:product at the outset that did not meet our editorialstandards. (The late addition of Cliff Levy helped to “Core Products continuously invents and evolves ourcreate a product that is poised to be a journalistic core web and app experiences to:success, regardless of whether it meets the business 1. Fullfill our journalistic mission,goals.) 2. Increase reach among like-minded readers, 3. Build deeper loyal relationships with readers, On the other side, the projects being led by David 4. Grow revenue through paid content, advertisingLeonhardt and Carl Hulse were both newsroom-led and other services.”66 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Reader Experience

In Their Own Words: Reader ExperienceWe asked eight leaders of Reader Experience teams about their relationships with the newsroom and howthey’d like to see them improve. Some clear themes emerged — everyone said that collaboration was criti-cally important but said we were currently falling short. And when asked their main points of contact inthe newsroom, we heard the same four names: Ian Fisher, Aron Pilhofer, Nathan Ashby-Kuhlman andJonathan Ellis (who just left). Here are some of their thoughts about the current state of the relationship:How important is working with the newsroom to How can we improve collaboration?your group and its ability to contribute fully to TheTimes success? “Nathan and Jonathan are the perfect partners: they know what is wrong and what needs to hap- “We’re ultimately providing all these vessels to pen. They are the perfect partners in terms of what get our world-class journalism in the hands of you’d want as a thought partner, but it breaks our readers, and the newsroom is crucial for that.” down beyond that.” “There’s only so much we can do at arm’s length “Ideally we need people in the newsroom who are from the newsroom by working through product obsessed with social and mobile and digital.” and technology as proxies.” “The newsroom is really easy to work with right “If we didn’t serve the newsroom, we wouldn’t now, but I don’t think they’re particularly ambi- be serving one of the most important parts of the tious. There’s not a lot of oomph in terms of artic- company. It wouldn’t be doing our job. The fact ulating where our products should be going. You that we can help the newsroom is a really great get into fiefdoms where there’s a little bit of think- reason for people to come work for us.” ing about it but no bold aspirations.” “My biggest concern within the newsroom is IHow effective is the current collaboration between feel a lot of people like Jonathan and Nathan andyour group and the newsroom? Andrew understand how digital works, but you go above that and it becomes really murky in terms “There’s a long way to go.” of understanding.” “Right now there is room for a more holistic view “There’s no corollary within the newsroom to the of what the newsroom thinks is important for our digital general managers on the business side.” product direction — there isn’t someone I could talk to about that now who has sway.” We interviewed: “Our single biggest challenge is we don’t know what our goals are at any given time. If we don’t Ian Adelman (left) know what we’re trying to get our users to do, it Digital Design becomes hard to prioritize effort and evaluate in- ternally.” Paul Smurl (right) “I don’t yet know, if I had an idea, who I would go Core Digital Products to in the newsroom with it.” “On NYT Now and Cooking, the editors and prod- Brad Kagawa uct managers have worked really well together. It’s Content Management Systems really been the ideal partnership.” Rajiv Pant Technology Management David Perpich New Digital Products Matthew Boggie Research & Development Sonia Yamada Consumer Insight Group Brian Murphy Web and Mobile Engineering 67

ent deficit in Technology that slows down projects. found that the most forward-thinking approachesThe vast majority of developers on the eighth floor to some of our pressing problems were coming fromwe spoke with believed they were not allowed to set Design and Product.foot in the newsroom, creating a sense of distanceand even alienation from a product they are instru- Tapping into their expertise will only becomemental in creating. Virtually all meetings among our more critical in coming years, as we wrestle with bigdigital teams occur in the tower of the building. questions about transitioning from a print-first to a digital-first organization. One developer who started a “developer/news-room relations committee,” asked to be added to But we cannot simply hand off these problems tothe AHOT distribution list so developers could occa- Reader Experience. Our role in this partnership issionally attend brown-bag lunches. The request was critical to ensuring our efforts reflect our creativ-declined with an explanation of the “church-state ity, meet our standards, minimize our conflicts anddivide.” Not long afterward, he left the company. serve the long-term mission of advancing our jour- nalism and growing our audience. It is in the newsroom’s interest to help attract thebest talent for such roles. “Where we can compete is A brainstorming session for the new cooking app.getting people closer to the mission,” said one high-ranking developer. Our Reader Experience colleagues are thinkingstrategically about the very questions at the heart ofthe newsroom’s digital future. Again and again, we68 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Reader Experience

How to Get ThereCLARIFY WHICH READER EXPERIENCE UNITS SHOULD BE INTERACTING WITH THE NEWSROOMGenerally we believe the group should include Reader Experience without prior permission. ForProduct, Design, Technology, Analytics, and example, someone starting a new product shouldR&D. However, not every part of these depart- consult Product to learn the best practices for aments falls into this category – for example, E- successful launch or talk to Consumer Insight toCommerce in Technology. better understand the target audience.Create and distribute a clear organizational chart Masthead editors, desk heads, and platform edi-of the Reader Experience departments that in- tors should have blanket authorization to speakcludes a contact person and their newsroom to anyone on the business side. Our most seniorcounterpart. leaders should be encouraged to learn as much as possible about our strategy for the rapidly chang-Masthead, desk heads, platform editors, produc- ing digital landscape, to ensure that we help shapeers and people in charge of verticals, including it from the beginning.columnists, should be encouraged to work withENSURE THE NEWSROOM IS WORKING COLLABORATIVELY WITH READER EXPERIENCENew ventures should be developed with collab- Prospective leaders should be encouraged to workorative multi-disciplinary teams whenever pos- on interdisciplinary projects as part of the groom-sible. A product manager should be assigned to ing process. Leaders like Levy, Sifton, Fisher andour most important efforts, like The Upshot. A Ingrassia have said that such exposure has signif-designer and developer should also be assigned icantly improved their understanding of opportu-to key projects as early as possible in the planning nities and challenges.phase. Teams should sit together to foster com-munication and collaboration. The newsroom should assign a point person for each major product area. Because current re-Newsroom leaders should work closely with sponsibilities are not always clear, we often reactReader Experience departments to shape digital to discussions rather than help shape them. Thesepriorities. People like David Perpich and Paul point people should engage with the ProductSmurl should be invited to newsroom strategy leads and inform the masthead of priorities andmeetings on topics like mobile, social and new ongoing work in their areas. This is similar to theproducts. role that Jonathan Ellis played with Alex Hardi- man on mobile, or that Nathan Ashby-Kuhlman plays with Brad Kagawa on Scoop. 69

HIRE COLLABORATIVELY AND ENCOURAGE EMPLOYEES TO MOVE FREELY BETWEEN THENEWSROOM AND READER EXPERIENCEStart pilot programs to embed more Reader Ex- The newsroom should be engaged in the hiringperience staff in the newsroom — for example, process for key Reader Experience positions,embed a developer on a particularly innovative such as product leads who directly touch our re-desk, place a member of the R&D team on the port. Similarly, Reader Experience should lendNews Desk, or have a Product manager work with its expertise when the newsroom is hiring for keya columnist for two months. digital positions like platforms editors.Digital employees in the newsroom should be al- To help recruit digital talent, hiring managerslowed to take positions in these departments and should emphasize that shaping the presentationvice versa. For example, Brian Hamman recently of our content is a vital and valued journalisticmade the jump from the newsroom to the new contribution.product team, and has been an invaluable asset,in part because of the breadth of his experience Orientation for new employees in the newsroomand his ability to translate the needs of each side. and Reader Experience should be integrated, ex-Others have turned down such jobs out of fear posing everyone to the full range of our reader-that they won’t be able to return to the newsroom. focused efforts and the values of our journalism.COMMUNICATE THE NEW MESSAGE FOR COLLABORATION BROADLYReader Experience employees should be added to The executive editor, C.E.O. and publisher shouldboth newsroom and business-side communica- communicate reader-focused goals and prioritiestions and considered welcome at all events. broadly to foster a sense of shared mission among the newsroom and Reader Experience groups.The newsroom should regularly send emails to allour Reader Experience colleagues about recentaccomplishments and ongoing priorities, andvice versa.70 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Reader Experience

2Newsroom Strategy TeamNot so long ago, the masthead could focus almost would seek to support the masthead in its goals,entirely on the newspaper. serving to better arm The Times’s leaders with in- sights and analysis that will make their growing jobs Today, running The New York Times newsroom easier.means not just creating a daily print report, but alsorunning a huge web operation, overseeing a grow- The core function would be ensuring the mast-ing array of mobile apps, newsletters, news alerts head is apprised of competitors’ strategies, changingand social media, as well as guiding an international technology and shifting reader behavior. The teamedition, a video operation and a range of new stand- would track projects around the company that affectalone products. As Jill said recently: “If you even our digital report, ensuring the newsroom is at thestop to catch your breath, you’re falling behind.” table when we need to be. The masthead, in particular, is being asked to fill This team would include people with strong back-two roles: to oversee the day-to-day needs of the grounds in journalism, technology, user experience,news report and newsroom operations and, simulta- product and analytics. That expertise would helpneously, to assess the future and chart a new course. the masthead evaluate and set priorities in critical but less familiar areas like our content-management In recent months, the masthead has made the system, platform functionality and audience devel-time to focus on the long-term needs of the news- opment.room — holding an off-site retreat to address press-ing big-picture needs, reassessing the mission of the The team would serve as a catalyst for launchingmagazine, crafting a plan for improving our mobile desk-level experiments in these areas and be chargedreport and creating initiatives such as this group, fo- with communicating those results to the newsroom.cused on innovation. It would also provide valuable training ground for future leaders by offering a deeper look at the chal- But strategy is such a pressing need at this junc- lenges and opportunities facing The Times.ture that it should become a permanent newsroomfunction, with dedicated staff. This team would be distinct from the business- side strategy team. But like that team, it would not Our recommendation is to create a newsroom have an operational role. It would be a neutral inter-strategy team that serves as an adviser to the mast- nal adviser dedicated to improving everyone’s game.head. We envision a small newsroom team that 71

DiscussionThe demands of a daily newspaper create a power- know how to do. And it allows us to avoid the trulyful gravitational pull on editors’ attention, drawing hard work and bigger questions about our presenttheir focus to the short-term — tomorrow’s front and our future: What shall we become? How mustpage, the tick-tock for Sunday’s paper, a project we change?”launching next month. This focus on the daily report also extends into Across the board, newsroom leaders told us that our digital ranks. The mobile team, which should bethey are so consumed with the demands of the daily one of our most forward-looking groups, spends soreport that they have trouble finding the time to step much time making fixes to ensure all our journal-back. In addition to the daily news demands, there ism appears in our apps that they say they have littleare the daily crises and a packed schedule of stand- left to think about how the mobile report should being meetings. distinctive or how to harness new technologies. That helps explain why it took a group removed from the Perhaps the most telling example is Ian Fisher, the daily flow of the newsroom — NYT Now — to funda-masthead editor in charge of both web and mobile mentally rethink our mobile presentation.reports. An average workday for Ian involves writ-ing headlines, scanning the wires, tracking breaking The people who have spent the most time thinkingnews and making sure that stories are appearing about the challenges of our digital future — thornycorrectly on mobile. That leaves him with less band- topics like personalization, and glaring needs likewidth for bigger strategic questions about our digital better data collection — can be found upstairs, mostoperations. often in Product, Design and Strategy. They are also spending countless hours studying and interviewing There are others who are explicitly charged with our competitors and our readers, and capturing andthinking about the big picture, of course: Tom on sharing their insights in detailed reports. But theirdesign, Aron on digital, Larry on new initiatives, initiative means the newsroom is often reacting to,and Janet on newsroom management. But these are rather than driving, the work on big questions thatsome of the busiest people in the newsroom. Per- are critical to our future.haps the only ones with more on their plates are Jilland Dean. “We’ve abdicated completely the role of strategy,” said one masthead editor. “We just don’t do strat- All this helps explain why Rich Meislin, who took egy. The newsroom is really being dragged behindthe buyout several years ago, remains such a critical the galloping horse of the business side.”resource, providing information, insight and coun-sel about digital issues to a range of people in the The business side doesn’t want this imbalance.newsroom and on the business side. In addition to They want to work alongside the newsroom to im-having a deep well of institutional knowledge, he prove the core of what we do. And they know thatalso has time. “They go to Rich because he’s avail- if the newsroom were to become a glorified ser-able and because he’s not dealing with the daily re- vice desk — simply providing the content that fillsport,” said a masthead editor. the packages that other groups are creating — that would not be good for the institution. Similarly, desk heads told us they have little timeto step back. “I don’t even have time to think about “I want a partner who has vision,” said the headthese things,” one said. Another suggested that the of one Reader Experience department. “We wind uprelentless work of assembling the world’s best news focused a lot on how to get things out the door andreport can also be “a form of laziness, because it is make them successful but not spending enough timework that is comfortable and familiar to us, that we on the one- to three-year horizon.”72 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Newsroom Strategy Team

We believe a strategy group can help reset the bal- in the newsroom, and Laura Evans, the former headance in the following ways: of analytics at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, helped us understand how thoseTRACKING THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE publications are changing — which shifts we should This work is critical but time-consuming. Over the mirror and which we should ignore. These relation- ships also helped us identify promising digital tal-last six months, we have spent countless hours read- ent.ing about the latest industry shifts in digital media.Understanding some developments often required “I talk to [Nick] Denton all the time. We bothtechnical knowledge, and at times, we have relied talk to Jacob [Weisberg]. We’re constantly tell-on experts to explain the implications. ing each other what’s working, what we’ve experi- mented with,” said Adam Moss, the editor of New Staying on top of these trends, particularly in to- York magazine, referring to the heads of Gawker andday’s faster-moving media world, requires finding Slate. “About half the choices I make come about be-sources, often in leadership roles at other compa- cause someone from another site tells me somethingnies, and cultivating ongoing conversations. Alexis worked, and so we adopt it.”Madrigal, the tech writer and digital strategist at TheAtlantic, told us how the company was succeeding It’s important to capture these conversations ason mobile through a focus on Facebook and direct well, so insights can be widely shared. The business-emails. Kevin Delaney, the head of Quartz, provided side strategy group shared with us an 80-page tran-his insights on how to integrate and use developers NEWS FEED A strategy team could keep the masthead appprised of important industry developments. 73

script of interviews about social strategy that they the masthead has been left out of several importantconducted with the leaders at various competitors. studies that will affect the newsroom, including aThey provided us with detailed assessments of the marketing-led exploration of our audience-develop-mobile functions offered by our competitors, which ment efforts and a detailed assessment of our dataquickly clarified where we need to catch up. capabilities and needs. In both cases, our senior leaders were unaware that these conversations were A newsroom strategy group should capture, dis- happening, despite the newsroom’s growing interesttill and explain the most important developments in both subjects.and insights to emerge from articles and interviews,perhaps in weekly emails to the masthead. Such in- In other cases, we knew about meetings but failedformation could also be shared with desk heads and to send a senior newsroom leader to represent ourdeputies to ensure that we’re arming the next gen- interests. In one instance, several of our business-eration of leaders with the knowledge they need. side colleagues had to speak up on our behalf to keep the Leonhardt project from being pushed down the The strategy group could also be responsible for priority list.tracking and sharing the most important work beingdone inside the building. A newsroom strategy group could ask for regular updates on the projects and priorities from various Several masthead editors told us there are so business units. And it could help our masthead lead-many initiatives that it can be hard to know when we ers determine when we need to get involved.need to claim our seat at the table. In recent months,STEALING A PAGEThe business side strategygroup regularly producesresearch reports such asthese to inform decisions.A newsroom strategy teamcould play a similar role.74 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Newsroom Strategy Team

The Right Way To FailFailure is not something we’re comfortable with in a decade: the metered subscription model. Our earlythe newsroom. And for good reason: getting our “failure” was critical to our later success, providingjournalism right is the foundation of our success. many of the critical lessons about how to structureBut that mindset can limit our appetite for and tol- and roll out our digital subscriptions.erance of risk. Our aversion to failure can also leadto wasted resources and prevent us from learning ‘WEEDING THE GARDEN’valuable lessons. One of the sharpest insights we heard about fail- ure came from Bob Pittman, the C.E.O. of Clear For example, our mobile app, “The Scoop,” and Channel. He described the importance of continu-our international home page have failed to gain ally “weeding the garden” in organizations, to en-traction with readers, yet we still devote resources sure that marginal ideas are not kept alive simplyto them. We ended the Booming blog but kept its because of inertia:newsletter going. These ghost operations distracttime, energy and resources that could be used for “If I try 10 new things and let’s say two are clearnew projects. At the same time, we haven’t tried to winners and two are clear losers. That means I’vewring insights from these efforts. “There were no got six in between. What do I do with those? Mostmetrics, no targets, no goals to hit and no period of organizations let everything live except the clearre-evaluation after the launch,” said a digital plat- losers. And what happens over time is that stuff informs editor, about our international home page. between doesn’t really help you. It takes up a lot of resources. It’s confusing. It’s muddy. When we do shut down projects, the decisions aremade quietly and rarely discussed, to protect the “And if you let that stuff build up, then prettyreputations of the people who ran them. As a result, soon my whole organization is basically mediocritylessons are forgotten and the staffers involved be- and gunk. So if you can bring yourself to say, ‘I’mcome more risk-averse. only going to let clear winners live. I’m going to take the resources I put for the other eight things and try By contrast, the business side conducts reviews of again,’ you can keep a crisp organization. And so webig projects to assess what worked and what didn’t always talk about weeding the garden. Part of it isand then builds those insights into future efforts. being honest with yourself. What really is a winner? Failures should be recast as important learning “It sort of goes back to the idea of don’t be afraidopportunities — that’s the approach at most tech of mistakes. You’ll make a lot of them. I think a lot offirms. We should publicly acknowledge when new people only want to keep it at two mistakes out of 10,projects are discontinued and have an open conver- instead of eight out of 10, because they want to keepsation about what we learned from that investment their batting average better. But nobody’s countingof time and resources. how many mistakes you make.” And we should take heart. Perhaps the best ex-ample of learning from a failure in the industry canbe found inside our own building. Times Select wasa stunning failure, and was mocked and derided inall corners of the Internet. In 2007, Gawker calledit “the world’s stupidest pay-for-content barrier toa good user experience.” But the knowledge gleaned from that efforthelped us score the single biggest journalistic win in 75

ASSESSING NEEDS AND SETTING PRIORITIES the news desk said that leaders would be “horrified” Our top editors have razor-sharp instincts for if they understood the situation, but he felt he lacked the ability to translate the problems for colleaguesmaking tough choices about priorities in news cov- without a deep background in content-managementerage. When big news breaks, we know how many systems. We heard essentially the same complaintreporters to put on the story, and we can quickly from those in mobile, Social, Design and Interactivework up five-day coverage plans. News. But the newsroom leadership doesn’t always have The strategy group could help in these cases by as-the expertise needed to identify, prioritize and set sessing the problems, explaining the need and thenplans for meeting our top digital needs. Sometimes offering a range of solutions to the masthead.this means we are less ambitious in our efforts,sometimes this means we have less of a sense of how A strategy group could also help provide a clearto use our limited resources, and this almost always point of contact for leaders looking to innovate, sup-means we are too reliant on front-line colleagues plying them with the assistance, contacts and bestwith deep expertise. practices to ensure they are launching new efforts in a way that makes them more likely to succeed. “I The newsroom strategy team, with a range of don’t even know who to ask,” said another depart-backgrounds in the group, could help. Having tra- ment head.ditional journalists working alongside people versedin user experience, technology and product manage- Several desk heads and masthead editors men-ment would allow for holistic and nuanced examina- tioned that “mobile” and “social” and “video” weretions of problems and solutions needed to push our all considered priorities at various points. But with-digital efforts to the next level. out tactical recommendations for acting on them, everyone re-focused on the print report, where their For example, our content-management system strengths lie and where the rewards are easily iden-may be our single most important platform, since it tified. “We’ll do it,” said one department head, aboutstructures our work in print, on the web and on mo- implementing the digital priorities. “But we have tobile. But desks and producers spend countless hours be led.”on one-time fixes to the platform, rather than per-manent solutions, even when it is clear the problems The strategy group could help the masthead bothwill emerge again and again. One senior member of create and communicate a clear newsroom digital priority list. And it could help define what ques-A CANDID, NEUTRAL VOICE tions should be answered before new initiatives are launched. What are we trying to achieve? How manyIn recent months, we’ve watched the newsroom people will be required? How will we measure suc-move inexorably to launch a new product, the cess? What can we learn from competitors? And howWashington morning tipsheet, even though almost do we get better over time?every person involved questioned the approach,from those working on it to the top of the masthead. “We need a vetting process for ideas,” said a mast-However, few wanted to publicly question the idea. head editor. “What are the ground rules for decidingIt may turn out to be a success but we believe a what’s worth doing? What are our goals?”more candid discussion would only help accomplishthat goal. This is one of several occasions when we RUNNING EXPERIMENTS AND SHARING RESULTSfound widespread concern about a strategy but a There has been a longstanding tension betweenreluctance to air it openly. We believe a strategygroup could help give voice to such concerns. dispersing and centralizing our digital talent. The choices that result affect the ebb and flow of experi- mentation in the newsroom.76 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Newsroom Strategy Team

Right now, we have consolidated digital innova- This tension between quality control and expand-tion in desks like Graphics, Interactive News, Social ed digital capabilities has been difficult to resolve.and Design. This approach has its advantages, en- While we have skewed towards centralization, oursuring excellent quality control and the highest-cal- competitors are doing the opposite: aggressively dis-iber work. But one disadvantage is that news desks, persing digital talent throughout their newsroomsparticularly web producers, lack the opportunity to with the understanding that people will make mis-experiment digitally on their own. takes as they build new skills. This approach makes scaling up our digital efforts A strategy group could help provide concep-far more difficult. To succeed in the coming years, tual help, structure and guidance to experimentsnews desks need to be building digital skills. Indeed, launched at the desk level, allowing more producers,a major reason producers have seen their access to editors and reporters to innovate and learn. Theytools and templates curtailed is because of the con- would be familiar with the tools and talents in thecerns that the editors on these desks are unable to newsroom, Technology, Product and Analytics thatrecognize substandard work. could help bring such ideas into reality.SPEED WINS This would allow us to use desks as laboratories to answer pressing questions and to develop bestWhen we have good ideas, we should treat them with the urgency practices. Examples include experimenting with dif-of a news scoop. Otherwise, we risk letting our competitors get ferent newsletter designs, testing how to best resur-there first. A year and a half ago, Andrew Phelps presented his face evergreen content, and trying new approachesbosses with a tool he developed: an automated, visual homepage to promoting a story. One priority for the strategyof the day’s report. Editors were enthusiastic, but there was no group would be replicability – encouraging experi-structure to support the initiative and after several months he gave ments and creating tools and templates that canup. More than a year later, an identical featured appeared on The then be easily shared with the rest of the newsroom.Washington Post website. Immediately, the NYT business side putout a request for a designer or developer interested in building avisual homepage. 77

Truth Be Told ...During more than 200 interviews, we heard a lot of unvarnished opinions from our colleagues about how the newsroom and business side could work together more effectively.One popular theme: There are times when each side needs to think a bit more like the other. BUSINESS NEWSROOM A GREATER FOCUS ON THE LONG-TERM TIME TO TACKLE HARD PROBLEMSLong-term growth must be a higher priority for the Both business-side and newsroom leaders said thatbusiness side. This point came up often, not just the newsroom could do a better job of tackling thefrom newsroom leaders but from business-side trickiest questions head-on. The rapidly changingleaders, too. A stubborn perception remains — even landscape demands innovation but too often we putthough it may not be accurate in some cases — that off setting strategy around controversial issues.too many incentives on the business side rewardshort-term goals. The newsroom’s role as steward of our institu- tional integrity ensures that it retains veto power One indicator is the troubling decline in our read- over anything that could be journalistically fraught.ership. This is even true on mobile, where our focus But that also means we must take a more active roleon turning casual readers into subscribers led us to in leading strategy in areas that offer the most prom-tinker with the article meter to meet immediate rev- ise — and yes, peril — for our digital future.enue goals. One reason for our caution is that the newsroom Some of this short-term focus is understandable, tends to view questions through the lens of worst-given the strain on our finances in recent years. But case scenarios. Even carefully phrased suggestionsour more solid financial footing allows us to re-em- about metrics or personalization have prompted re-phasize long-term thinking. sponses like, “I don’t want to turn our home page into a collection of stories about cats and celebrities.” It should be noted that Mark has explicitly cham- Four years ago, just floating the idea of using bulletpioned such a shift. But a focus on immediate rev- points in mobile article summaries led to someoneenue — “line of sight ROI” — remains a concern. We being accused of “dumbing down our report.”were repeatedly told by members of strategy, mar-keting, product, technology and other key divisions Because we set these questions aside, our busi-that business leaders sometimes struggle to value ness colleagues or Reader Experience departmentsthings that can’t be easily quantified and plugged have often stepped in to fill the void. And the news-into a financial model, starting with our readers. For room has historically reacted defensively by water-example, several people told us that this approach ing down or blocking changes, prompting a phraseled us to under-invest in social media, which offers that echoes almost daily around the business side:ambiguous returns even though it is an increasingly “The newsroom would never allow that.”critical method of distributing our journalism andbuilding audience loyalty. An example of the risk of this hands-off approach became apparent in recent months. The business “Not every proposal should have to fit neatly into side conducted a wholesale rethinking of our au-a financial model,” said one member of the strategy dience-development strategies, and the marketingteam. “We need a mindset shift that allows us to in- department planned to turn to the newsroom tovest in things we think are important simply because implement many of the final recommendations. Thewe think they’re important.” newsroom was not consulted in advance.78 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Newsroom Strategy Team

How to Get ThereBUILD A STRONG TEAM The group offers a unique opportunity to groom future leaders. It also offers an opportunity to tap We believe the team should have, collectively, into different desks and create new evangelists strong backgrounds in journalism, technology, for collaboration. user experience, product and analytics. The leader of the strategy group should report The team should have a clear leader. To ensure to a single person on the masthead who is se- it is cohesive and nimble, the team should be no nior enough to provide the necessary carrots and larger than six people. Members should be collab- sticks to implement recommendations. But the orative problem-solvers, gifted at persuasion and group should serve the whole masthead. eager to work with experts and novices. The team could include permanent and rotating positions, which would allow for continuity while also bringing in new ideas.TRACK AND ADVISE ers from other digital publications. Another is arranging a “reader insights boot camp” to help The group’s central mission should be to ensure desk heads understand how readers engage with that newsroom leaders are apprised of changing their sections. technology and shifting reader behavior. The group could serve as another contact point The group could track digital competitors’ web- for departments on the business side to ensure sites, apps and strategies and conduct regular in- that the newsroom is aware of all projects and terviews with other companies to assess thinking priorities throughout the company. They could and best practices. These could be compiled into communicate developments to the masthead weekly reports for the masthead and other senior with recommendations of when and how the leaders. newsroom should participate. The group could provide regular training sessions for newsroom leaders about the changing digital landscape. One example is assembling speak- 79

HELP IDENTIFY AND COMMUNICATE PRIORITIES tiatives and keep the masthead informed of wins and where we are underperforming. The team could use its expertise and knowledge of the competitive landscape to help the mast- The team could also be a contact point for report- head evaluate and set priorities in areas like audi- ers and editors with innovative ideas who need ence development and publishing systems. guidance on execution. This could also include explaining why some ideas aren’t being pursued, It could help communicate digital and innova- so that people can let go of pet projects that are tion goals in the newsroom and on the business going nowhere. side. It could help assess the resources needed to achieve each goal and make sure they have spe- cific metrics for success. The team could track ini-WORK WITH DESKS TO FOSTER INNOVATION The team could arrange “embeds” in the news- room for business-side units focused on reader experience. The team could help facilitate efforts with Audi- ence Development to design and launch desk- level experiments, and then communicate results back to the newsroom.80 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Newsroom Strategy Team

3 Digital FirstWe must begin an ongoing assessment of our print impressive newspaper. This is not a matter of se-traditions and digital needs. mantics. It is a critical, difficult and, at times, pain- ful transformation that will require us to rethink In the coming years, The New York Times needs much of what we do every day.to accelerate its transition from a newspaper thatalso produces a rich and impressive digital report to Our leaders know this and we have taken stepsa digital publication that also produces a rich and in these directions. But it has become increasingly clear that we are not moving with enough urgency.MOST REVENUE STILL COMES FROM PRINT... This may be the single most important long-term challenge facing the newsroom and its leaders.digital print There are factors that, understandably, slow this 25% 18% tricky transition. More than three quarters of our advertising and subscription revenue still comesAdvertising accounts for Circulation accounts for from the newspaper, and most of our employees$667M, of which $170M is $824M, of which $150M is have spent their careers building skills to succeed indigital and $497M is print. digital and $674M print. print. But the huge majority of our readers are digi- tal, and this represents our single biggest opportu- nity for growth. As a business, this is an extremely difficult bal-...BUT PRINT ACCOUNTS FOR A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF OUR READERS 20M 25M 30M 0 5M 10M 15M Print readers Facebook fans Email subscribers Twitter followers News alerts subscribers Mobile readers Desktop readers 81

ancing act. It is just as tricky for the newsroom. The this shift. But the only real solutions will come fromexperience of putting out the newspaper informs critical questioning, experimentation and a devotionalmost every element of how we do our jobs, from to iterative change. The first step is an open-endedthe people we hire to how they work to what they recommendation: The newsroom should begin anproduce. These assumptions — based on the news- intensive review of its print traditions and digitalpaper’s fixed dimensions and hard deadlines — are needs — and create a road map for the difficult tran-so baked into our days that it is easy to overlook sition ahead. We need to know where we are, wheretheir artificial limitations or the new possibilities we we’re headed and where we want to go.could embrace. That means aggressively questioning many of our “The question of what is Timesian has been both print-based traditions and their demands on ourthe saving grace and artificial limiter of the news- time, and determining which can be abandoned toroom,” said one masthead editor. free up resources for digital work . The continued profitability of the newspaper has That also means assessing our digital needs, cre-bought us time. But that head start is eroding. Sev- ating new digital leadership posts and upgradingeral billionaires have pledged parts of their fortunes digital talent across the newsroom, especially withto creating digital newsrooms. Start-ups, backed by people from other innovative organizations andventure capital, are redefining digital media. And non-traditional competitors.traditional competitors have moved aggressively toremake themselves as “digital first.” Even more important than policy or structural changes is that the rank and file of the newsroom “The newsroom of the future is not the current take ownership of this transformation. This meansone dragged into it,” said John Paton, the CEO of sending clear signals about goals, changing rewardthe local newspaper chain that renamed itself Digi- structures and basing promotions on behavior thattal First Media. “It is going to be re-built from the moves us toward our digital future.ground up.” “If you wait around for a generation of reporters to We all wish there were a ready-made playbook for do this naturally,” the editor of one competing news organization said, “You are going to be left behind.” WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE ‘DIGITAL FIRST?’ Around the newsroom, this phrase often is used to refer to publishing articles on the web before putting them in print. But outside our walls, digital-first is an all-encompassing strategy. Digital-first means the top priority is producing the best possible digital report, free from the constraints of the newspaper. The last step is repackaging the best of that digital report for the next day’s paper. This transition requires rethinking staffing, struc- ture and work processes from top to bottom. Companies with no legacy platform have the advantage of being able to focus entirely on creating the best digital reports. For newspaper companies, making this transition can be so challenging that sev- eral of our competitors have handed responsibility for the daily paper to small, stand-alone teams so that everyone else can focus on digital.82 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Digital First

DiscussionNathan Ashby-Kuhlman, our senior editor for dig- want to be 1, 5, 10, 20 years from now — a best guessital operations, recently sent a provocative email is fine and we can adjust as we go — and then mapto the leaders of our digital newsroom. Calling the out the steps towards realizing that vision.”print paper “a powerfully conservative force” in thenewsroom, he warned we were not doing enough to It’s not as if the newsroom has been standing still.prepare for our digital future. Digital is now part of the newsroom ecosystem. In some departments, like Graphics, Digital Design The newsroom, he noted, is still governed by the and Interactive News, we have industry-leading op-traditions and limitations of print, and he made a erations, and the department heads have been el-table-pounding case that we should create content evated to the masthead. And just this month, the af-for a digital report and then use the best work from ternoon Page One meetings were recast to be morethat effort to put out a print edition. of “a look ahead to coverage for digital delivery.” “We don’t need to get there by the end of 2014,” But to those charged with worrying abut thehe wrote. “But because this will be one of the most newsroom’s future, it’s clear we’re just a fraction ofdifficult transitions The New York Times’s news- the way there. And compared to many of our com-room has ever made, it is urgent to start mapping petitors, we’re falling behind.out a strategy.” ‘DIGITAL FIRST’ AS A MANTRA FOR CHANGE Years of private complaints around the building It may sound like a buzz-phrase, but “digital first”suddenly had a very public forum. Others quicklyweighed in. — as a strategy, a process and a mindset — is taking hold across the industry. New companies are using A top member of our technology team complained it to lure our best journalists, promising them thethat our changes so far have been “incremental and technology and talent to succeed without old con-reactive,” and he called for a “holistic look at the straints.way we work — job descriptions, tasks, workflowsand organization — to make us the flexible, adapt- “It’s so rare to get an opportunity not only to buildable organization we will need to be in order to sur- something from the ground up, but to build it with-vive.” out the pressure of producing content on a daily ba- sis,” said Eric Bates, who left his role as executive A top platform editor warned that print revenue editor of Rolling Stone to join First Look Media.was more likely to fall off a cliff than continue itssteady decline. “We have already made great strides Some of our competitors have ruthlessly reorga-in becoming one integrated, print-and-digital news- nized in the last two years around digital and grownroom,” he wrote. “But we actually haven’t gotten far significantly. “Once everyone at the senior level re-enough. It’s not enough to be an ‘integrated’ news- ally understood this, it prompted a huge interven-room. We have to become a digital newsroom, a tion, big editorial changes,” said the head of The Fi-small subset of which produces a print product.” nancial Times’s digital operations. And the new executive director for core digital Over the last year, USA Today has been integrat-products called for spending “at least an hour every ing digital staff — like developers and social editorsweek for, I suppose, ever,” discussing this transi- — into each desk. Now, a small team organizes andtion. “We start by painting a picture of where we designs the print paper. “The best online journalism 83

Owning The Story When Michael Sam, the college football player, decided to announce to the world that he is gay, he brought the story first to The Times and ESPN. Our package was well-executed and memorable, but some of our more digitally focused competitors got more traffic from the story than we did. If we had more of a digital-first approach, we would have developed in advance an hour-by-hour plan to expand our package of related content in order to keep readers on our site longer, and attract new ones. We would have been thinking as hard about “second hour” stories as we do about “second day” stories. Here is what a digital roll-out might look like: 1. Alert the Opinion section in advance to line up a reaction. Instead, we published a column a day later. 2. Resurface our 2011 “Coming Out” series. Since the series tapped into gay communities, ask the edi- tor for those contacts. We didn’t find a link to this series in our Michael Sam coverage.84 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Digital First

3. Organize a Google+ hangout with another open-ly gay athlete. We later found numerous online vid-eo and television appearances with Jason Collins, anopenly gay NBA player, talking about his friendshipwith Michael Sam.4. Assign a reporter to live-blog Twitter reactions.We found several sites that beat us at assembling thereaction. Depite not having an exclusive, Sports Il-lustrated was the first to report on a backlash amongNFL executives.5. Post a short backstory on how we got the inter-view. SB Nation reported the backstory of our exclu-sive, and branded it “exclusive.” Its story dominatedTwitter and Google News.OTHER SUGGESTIONS: Pre-produce video highlights to put clips on sites Implement a social promotion strategy the min- like Instagram and Twitter. ute The Times posts the story, including reach- Create tools to become a platform for the reac- ing out to gay communities and influencers, via tion after the news breaks. For example, we could LinkedIn, Facebook and others. create an interactive quiz or survey related to the Reach out to Times reporters with large Twitter draft, or start a moderated discussion thread with followings, especially those with prominence in prominent figures. gay and sports communities, to tweet the story to their followers. 85

goes into print at the end of the day,” said David Cal- gineering team that is already helping us rethink thelaway, the editor-in-chief. “But nothing is native for way we power newsrooms and present information.”print.” Our own David Carr crystallized the moment in a The Financial Times was spurred to take similar recent column. “In digital media, technology is not asteps after its leaders studied changing readership wingman, it is The Man,” he wrote. “How somethingtrends and spent several weeks in Silicon Valley. is made and published is often as important as whatThey cut the number of editions from three to one. is made.”They moved 200 night production staffers to nor-mal daytime hours. They built up engagement, data DIGITAL FIRST AT THE TIMESand breaking news teams. And they put print in the Over decades, we have perfected our formula forhands of a small group of editors. putting out a world-class paper 365 days a year. But “You have to shift the balance of power and work many of our traditions, routines and habits — per-backwards,” said Lionel Barber, the editor. fect for the fixed deadlines and constraints of print — seem increasingly out of step with the digital Another company, Digital First Media, recently world.announced “Project Unbolt.” This initiative, un-derway at dozens of newspapers (formerly known For example, the vast majority of our content isas Journal Register and Media News), is meant to still published late in the evening, but our digitaltransform “every process, every workflow step.” traffic is busiest early in the morning. We aim am-Steve Buttry, the company’s Digital Transformation bitious stories for Sunday because it is our largestEditor, said that the effort — named because print print readership, but weekends are slowest online.newsrooms typically have digital operations “bolted Each desk labors over section fronts, but pays littleon” — has been surprisingly well-received by tradi- attention to promoting its work on social media.tional journalists. “I don’t hear so many resisting,curmudgeonly, ‘you can’t make me change’ reac- Once you start looking at The Times through thistions anymore,” he said. “I hear learning-curve types lens, the questions start spilling out: Should our dig-of questions.” ital report only present what’s new, or should it also showcase content from our archive that has been The Wall Street Journal pledged to join the “digi- repackaged in creative and useful ways? Is the 700-tal first” ranks, building a new “real-time news desk” 1100 word story, the sweet spot for print, the rightwith 60 people and a new “audience-engagement length for digital readers? If weekly columns aredesk” with social-media editors and analytics spe- struggling to win repeat readers, how can we buildcialists at the center of their newsroom. They are in- loyal followings?tentionally hiring younger, less experienced employ-ees to speed them up and push for change. Our mindset is to perfect, then release. This should always be the case for our journalism. But Ezra Klein was one of several prominent journal- we must question whether everything needs to meetists who left the security of an established newspa- this standard. Our competitors are launching newper for a digital-media startup. For Klein, the value products or features as betas, and then using vitalof a guaranteed audience — The Washington Post’s feedback from readers — rather than another roundhistoric trump card — was eclipsed by the value of of internal feedback — to improve.technology and digital talent. Increasingly, the righttechnology and talent can build up a big audience “I’m glad we still have the standards of qualityvery quickly. that we do,” said one Times platform editor. “That’s what distinguishes us in this era. What bothers me In his announcement, Klein focused on Vox’s con- is when standards are used as an excuse to say no totent management system, Chorus, as the key draw. an idea.”“And behind Chorus is a world-class design and en- We look at our competitors through a print lens,86 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Digital First

as well. Newsroom leaders spend a lot of time read- ness Day columnists showed up at the very bottoming other outlets’ stories. Few are studying their digi- of the business section. That is because our mobiletal strategies — presentation, social presence, search site is automatically loaded from our web sectionoptimization, navigation and mobile strategy. Fewer fronts. Similarly, we’ve spotted numerous storiesstill are spending enough time looking at digital me- that invited readers to post comments, even thoughdia outlets that we don’t consider competitors. our iPhone and iPad apps do not allow users to com- ment. Instead of running mobile on autopilot, we And even fewer are looking at competitors on their need to view the platform as an experience that de-smartphones. As a result, it is distressingly common mands its own quality control and creativity.to see mistakes on our apps. Moreover, beyond simply recognizing and en- For instance, we noticed that our popular Busi- couraging new behavior, we must be incentivizing that behavior through new reward structures.no comment Most reporters know exactly how frequentlyAt the bottom of this Kristof column on our mobile app, he invited they’ve appeared on Page One in the previous yearreaders to comment. But the app does not have that feature. — indeed, annual performance reviews often lead off with that figure. Similarly, desk heads are keenly aware when they have a dry spell of Page One sto- ries, and backfielders spend countless hours each week to making sure the pipeline is filled with sto- ries that could be offered for the front page. To right this imbalance, we need to provide more feedback. Editors should be monitoring things like their reporters’ social-media presence and willing- ness to try new ways of telling stories. And desk heads should be told if they are not keeping up digi- tally. This feedback — which a new analytics unit will make far easier to provide, based on data — is essen- tial because New York Times editors and reporters will always be working at capacity. They just need clearer and more consistent signals. “They mostly seem to care about the front page and big, giant sto- ries, and that’s great,” one desk head told us. “But if 13 million people need a news alert, we ought to know that. It ought to be somebody’s job on the masthead to tell us that. We do respond, but it’s a matter of shifting our burdens.” OUR DIGITAL BENCH OF TALENT To help change the culture, we need more and bet- ter digital talent. We often hire in bursts for new strategic ini- tiatives, such as video, or offer promotions when someone is considering leaving. But these efforts are 87

In Their Own Words: Digital DeparturesThe Times is strong enough to withstand the loss of any one journalist. But when a talented digital col-league departs, it can feel more disruptive because our bench is not as deep. We asked five people who left digital jobs at The Times to explain their departures. Some of the reasonsare well known, such as the lack of growth opportunities. But they also expressed frustration that theirwork was not fully understood or appreciated by the leadership. And they complained that their efforts toelevate our digital report were hindered by tradition and bureaucracy. Everyone we interviewed said they were passionate about The Times but could not turn down more au-tonomy, creativity and influence elsewhere. Tellingly, none expressed regret that they left.Why did you leave The Times? roles and a deeper understanding of the possibili- “I looked around the organization and saw the ties of true digital journalism.” plum jobs — even ones with explicitly digital man- dates — going to people with little experience in What can The Times to do retain digital leaders? digital. Meanwhile, journalists with excellent digi- tal credentials were stuck moving stories around “Young digital talent is rarely motivated by mon- on section fronts.” “When it takes 20 months to build one thing, your ey. Typically they are motivated by the potential skill set becomes less about innovation and more about navigating bureaucracy. That means the to make impact at an organization that speaks longer you stay, the more you’re doubling down on staying even longer. But if there’s no leadership to their values. This is the NYT trump card and role to aspire to, staying too long becomes risky.” “I didn’t want to be a straight-up news reporter or should be played as often as possible.” even a straight news editor. I always felt a little bit outside of what was most core to The Times, and “Figure out a way to take a big chance on some- what The Times was most proud of.” “I felt stifled by the hierarchy of the organization; one. In 1992, the ‘Today’ show was already a 40- meetings predicated upon meetings that did not lead to resolution or clear next steps.” year American institution when NBC appointedWhat was appealing about life outside The Times? 26-year-old Jeff Zucker as its executive producer. “The BuzzFeeds of the world have strong central We all know the success that happened after that. leadership with clear digital visions not tied down by fiefdoms and legacy products.” But can you imagine something like that happen- “I wanted to learn a lot from a purely digital com- pany that didn’t have complicated print legacy ing at The New York Times?” requirements. I still feel to some extent that The Times, or large parts of The Times, have a be- “Young people have many opportunities and only grudging acceptance of technology.” “I could pursue my passion and grow as a leader the rarest of the bunch will be willing to wait 20 faster elsewhere, in an environment with less rigid years for the opportunity to truly be a leader. But find a way to give someone some real authority, and you may be onto something.” We Interviewed: Soraya Darabi: Launched social media at The Times. Founded a startup that was sold for $10 million and featured on the cover of Fast Company. Alice DuBois: Former deputy of digital platforms at The Times now director of editorial product at BuzzFeed. Jonathan Ellis: Former senior editor for mobile platforms at The Times. Joined Mashable to become managing editor for the growing newsroom. Liz Heron: Former social media editor at The Times. Joined Facebook after serving as head of audience engagement at The Wall Street Journal. Zach Wise: Former senior multimedia producer for The Times. Now Associate Professor, The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.88 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Digital First

largely reactive. The newsroom should think about have either left or asked to transition into reportingour hiring needs — including jobs we need to create or editing because those roles offered a clearer path— for the next five to 10 years. for career growth. This creates a troubling dynamicOur current approach overvalues journalistic — we retain our best digital players by putting themskills for digital hires and undervalues digital skills in positions that don’t take advantage of their skillfor journalism hires — often because that reflects sets. These are clear signs of our newspaper mindsethow most editors know how to evaluate talent. In- trumping our digital mindset.deed, many people hired into purely digital roles A number of people who left The Times recentlysaid their clips were the most important factor in said they saw only a small number of senior roleslanding their jobs. One department head warned to grow into, and when those positions do open up,that we must change our mindset from hiring people they are often handed to traditional journalists. This“to continue the legacy we’ve established” to hiring only compounds the problem: Because of the short-people “to shake things up.” age of digital natives in senior leadership, we haveThis is true for our traditional journalism posi- trouble knowing who should be promoted.tions, as well. We need more reporters and editors Collaborative efforts in the newsroom help de-with an intuitive sense of how to write for the web, velop and empower digital talent, and they providean interest in experimenting with mobile and social more opportunities for our digital colleagues to dis-storytelling, a proficiency with tinguish themselves with currentdata, a desire to engage with read- Digital staffers want leaders. For example, Sam Siftoners on and off our site, and a nu- to play creative roles, said the most transformative partanced understanding of the shift- of his experience working on theing competitive landscape. We not service roles. Cooking product has been sittinghave people like Jenna Wortham side-by-side with software devel-and Mike Luo but there are far opers. If he raises a question, atoo few of them. This is particularly true in the edit- developer will overhear it and start searching for aing ranks, where many desks lack editors who even solution. Prototypes are created in an afternoon, notknow how to evaluate digital work. This is one of our a month.most pressing needs. Kevin Delaney, a former top editor at The WallWe also must find ways to develop and empower Street Journal who founded Quartz, said that hisour existing digital talent so that they can help shape technologists and journalists all sit together. “Mystrategy. conviction is that traditional organizations separateThe complaints from digital staffers in our news- this process, which really greatly handicaps innova-room are, by now, familiar to our leadership: they tion,” he said. “The developer understands the pro-feel their expertise isn’t put to good use, have few cess because they are involved. Developers are notgrowth opportunities and believe their bosses do not order-takers.”understand their skills. Bringing someone from Product, Design, Tech-The reason producers, platform editors and de- nology or one of our other Reader Experience unitsvelopers feel dissatisfied is that they want to play into the newsroom would make it far easier for themcreative roles, not service roles that involve admin- to spot problems and offer solutions — people likeistering and fixing. It would be like reporters com- Renda Morton and Libby Gery, the user-experienceing here hoping to write features but instead we ask designers who invented the forthcoming “Watch-them to spend their days editing wire stories into ing” feature on our home page. Or someone likebriefs. Paul Yorke, who has played a crucial role in build-As a result, some of our brightest digital staffers ing our news-alert system into one of the most ef- 89

fective broadcast devices in journalism. There have their skills and how they could be put to use.been some initial efforts along these lines, with Erin “You can’t take new talent and put them in oldGrau, Kelly Alfieri, James Robinson and others,and they are worth building on. In another promis- structures where they are second-class citizens,”ing sign, Ian Fisher is bringing developers into the said the editor of one competing newspaper. “Thatnewsroom. is not real change. You must change the structure of power.” However, our producers provide a case study forhow dispersing digital talent is insufficient withouta clear plan for using them. Many work in a vague,catch-all position that can be best described as a“digital person on a desk who is not a reporter oreditor.” First, their bosses need to better understandPAGE ONE Here is a typical complaint from a WashingtonThe newsroom is unanimous: We are focusing too reporter who frequently appears on A1:much time and energy on Page One. This concern— which we heard in virtually every interview we “Our internal fixation on it can be unhealthy,conducted, including with reporters, desk heads, and disproportionate and ultimately counterproductive.masthead editors — has long been a concern for the Just think about how many points in our day are stillleadership. oriented around A1­­­— from the 10 a.m. meeting to the summaries that reporters file in the early after- And yet it persists. Page One sets the daily noon to the editing time that goes into those summa-rhythms, consumes our focus, and provides the ries to the moment the verdict is rendered at 4:30.newsroom’s defining metric for success. The recent In Washington, there’s even an email that goes out toannouncement from Tom Jolly to focus the Page One the entire bureau alerting everyone which six storiesmeeting more on the web report is a great step in made it. That doesn’t sound to me like a newsroomthe right direction, but many people have voiced their that’s thinking enough about the web.”skepticism that it will truly change our focus.90 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Digital First

Winning The Talent WarsIn the 1990s, the paper of record decided to add than adjusted to it — is far higher than moving tra-more sparkle to its just-the-facts approach to pro- ditional journalists into digital posts. It’s not just aducing the daily report. We started recruiting writ- matter of possessing a particular skill set. They haveers with voice and style from publications we had an intuitive sense of how to adapt to the changinglong overlooked, like New York magazine and The demands of technology and reader behavior.Observer. Color photos soon followed. Then more “You need to build a whole new culture, a wholeengaging graphics. new talent base that’s completely dedicated to theNow we take it for granted that The Times is a new,” said Justin Smith, the C.E.O. of Bloombergmagnet for the best writers, photographers and News, who earned his stripes transforming Thegraphics editors in the business. Atlantic from a money-losing magazine to a thriv-We’ve arrived at a similar moment. ing and profitable digital operation. “Don’t trustThe only way to ensure that our report keeps pace that people are ever going to be able to transition.”is to build a newsroom with a deeper and broader Similarly, editors at The Financial Times and USAmix of digital talents: technologists, user experi- Today told us that the most important move theyence designers, product manag- have made in recent years wasers, data analysts and, most of We need makers, to aggressively bring in digitalall, digitally inclined reporters entrepreneurs, reader talent. In both cases, they usedand editors. buyouts to make room for new Or, to set aside those labels advocates and hires, with a focus on clearingand put our needs in more ba- out reporters and editors whosic terms, we want makers, who zeitgeist watchers. were actively opposing changes.build tools to streamline our Digital media startups don’tnewsgathering; entrepreneurs, have to worry about retrainingwho know what it takes to launch new digital ef- their staffs. “Every year our talent pool gets bet-forts; reader advocates, who ensure that we are de- ter and better,” said Henry Blodget, who foundedsigning useful products that meet our subscribers’ Business Insider. “A new generation of writers andchanging needs; and zeitgeist watchers, who have a reporters grew up in digital, and it’s second naturesixth sense for the shifting technology and behavior. to them.”Most of all, we need those rare — and sought after Attracting digital talent will take more work than— talents who can check off many of those boxes. we might think. We assume, rightly so, that ambi-And we need them now. While we receive ac- tious journalists want to work at The Times. Butcolades for our digital efforts like “Snowfall,” we our storied brand is less of a draw among digitalnevertheless are at risk of becoming known as a natives. They are drawn to opportunities to createplace that does not fully understand, reward and something, experiment and solve problems, and re-celebrate digital skills. And many our competitors think how news is made — without the guardrails— including The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and bureaucracy of a legacy organization. It doesn’tThe Financial Times and The Washington Post — help that we often can’t compete on wages for topare ahead of us in making such hires a top priority. digital talent. But we can compete by pitching our-Recruiting the right talent is imperative because selves as a great Internet success story, selling po-the success rate of hiring a digital native — the peo- tential hires on the satisfaction of helping transformple who have grown up in a digital world, rather a world-class, mission-driven organization. 91

Here are potential steps to attract digital talent: Use our journalism as a recruiting and retention tool, by letting talented technologists, user-expe- Identify our skills gaps and aggressively recruit rience designers, product managers and digital to fill them. strategists work more closely on the report. Make sure our hiring managers understand the Empower and develop our digital talent by asking demands of the jobs they’re trying to fill, and can them to help shape, rather than simply imple- assess the skills of applicants. ment, strategy. Put less emphasis on traditional journalism skills Consider hiring top digital talent at a senior level in our digital hires, and put more emphasis on to send an important signal about our priorities digital skills in our journalism hires. to potential recruits. To bring in new ideas, hire fewer people from traditional competitors, and recruit more from innovative start-ups.Digital Stars Chris Wiggins A top data scientist from Columbia University, Wig-Many our of digital colleagues are famous in their fields, though gins is working to bring more data scientists to Thefew in the newsroom are aware of their talents and reputations. Times at a time when experts in this field are in short supply and high demand. Mike Bostock A graphics editor in the San Francisco bureau, Jeremy Ashkenas Bostok created a library of graphics code used by Ashkenas created CoffeeScript, a programming publications all over the world. In the tech commu- language. His reputation helps us attract top talent. nity, he is a revered figure. “He influences how things are built on the web,” a colleague said. Mark Suppes An Interactive News developer, Suppes is almost certainly the only Times employee who has built a nuclear fusion reactor with about $35,000 in spare parts. He also built Gucci’s website.Grooming Digital Leaders about the trade-offs when pushing journalists into such jobs without relevant experience. This patternWe need more digital talent over all, but we also of promotion risks, among other things, sending theneed more digitally inclined leaders. message that the only way to move up in the compa- ny is through traditional journalism, even on digital This shortfall stems from several longstanding career paths.biases. We rarely hire outsiders directly into lead-ership positions. We have struggled to groom our When our competitors hire for critical digitaldigital journalists for leadership, in part because positions, they don’t seek people with print expe-we don’t fully know how to use their skills. And we rience; they seek people with the most impressivehave a tendency to move traditional journalists into resumes.top digital roles. An important shift happened recently with the It’s critically important to have traditional jour- promotion of Aron Pilhofer and Steve Duenes to thenalists involved in crafting and implementing our masthead. The promotions paid off quickly: Bothdigital strategy. But having so many of these posts are responsible for hiring much of our best digitalfilled by traditional journalists deprives us of deep talent and for launching ambitious digital initia-expertise to push our digital efforts to the next level. tives. They watch competitors and notice trends — making the conversation about our mobile efforts We need to understand the demands of such roles or new products richer.and the skills they require, and to be clear-eyed92 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Digital First

Assessing The Newsroom’s Digital NeedsBefore we can embrace many of the opportunities described in this report, we must first have better un-derstanding of our current digital capabilities and where we need to improve. We have identified five areas that warrant more investment: strategy, analytics, product, platforms andaudience development. Our competitors — old and new — have been staffing up in these disciplines, andwe must join the battle to better meet our digital needs and to build a deeper bench of digital talent. What follows is an assessment of these needs, rather than a proposed organizational chart for new hiresin these areas. The precise structure matters less than insuring they have a central role in the newsroom.STRATEGY PRODUCTSNeed: Strategy is an implicit part of many jobs but Need: The Times’s digital products, especially mo-planning is not centralized. Masthead editors and bile, no longer set the standard for digital journal-desk heads have little time to focus on long-term ism. People who serve as product editors are focusedstrategy. The newsroom does not have a list of pri- on short-term fixes rather than long-term editorialorities to coordinate with the business side. Without vision. Other products, like email, are neglected. Be-a deep understanding of competitors’ digital strate- cause the team is understaffed and has little guid-gies, we lag behind on best practices. Innovators in ance from the masthead, their efforts are focusedthe newsroom have trouble translating their needs on business-side initiatives to generate revenue, notand executing their ideas. newsroom needs .Opportunity: Create a newsroom strategy team that Opportunity: Hire and empower more product edi-would apprise the masthead of changing reader be- tors to help develop reader-facing products for thehavior and strategy shifts by new and traditional website, mobile apps, email, video and communitycompetitors. It would help prioritize and commu- platforms, as well as the reader-facing features ofnicate the newsroom’s digital initiatives. The team cross-platform products, such as breaking news andcould conduct studies to answer strategic questions. personalization. They would work closely with their product-manager counterparts on the business side and represent the newsroom’s interests in new- product initiatives. IN DEMAND Journalism job postings show that the demand for digital talent far outstrips the supply. 93

PLATFORMS AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENTNeed: There is no single newsroom owner of our Need: We are not aggressive enough about pro-content-management system, Scoop, which is where moting our work so that our content reaches itsall our digital content is created. As a result, our CMS maximum natural audience. We lack a presencelags behind systems at the The Huffington Post, on important social platforms, and our Twitter andBuzzFeed and Vox in terms of functionality, ease of Facebook accounts are managed by different depart-use and speed. Our Interactive News department ments. Our website editors do not use some strate-is a big driver of innovation, but their work is often gies for maximizing traffic that are standard prac-not replicable because it is not built into journalist- tice elsewhere, even though these approaches wouldfacing technology. Because the newsroom leader- not conflict with our editorial values. A number ofship has not set clear priorities, the CMS technology valuable tools like repackaging, personalization, op-team is forced to address minor fixes, often for indi- timization, and direct outreach are not being usedvidual desks, instead of focusing on major editorial strategically.innovation. New-product teams, like NYT Now, had Opportunity: We need to focus on growing our au-to work around our publishing systems because they dience and keeping our existing readers on our sitecouldn’t get their work prioritized. longer. This comes through optimization of our webOpportunity: Create platform editor positions to site and off-site distribution, especially in socialserve as the newsroom leads on internal products media. Our content needs a newsroom-driven pro-like Scoop, working closely with colleagues in In- motion strategy ahead of and just after publication.teractive News and Technology to identify problems Raising our game in audience development wouldwith our publishing systems and prioritize and build help us win back the traffic around our own contentsolutions. Platform editors also could identify suc- that other sites like Huffington Post are stealingcessful one-off projects that could be turned into from us. The need is particularly urgent given thereplicable templates. They could also advocate for declining number of people reaching us through ourand develop models for structured data and tagging. home page.Platform editors could work with product editors toidentify how reader-facing product innovations — ANALYTICSfor example, a feature to help readers follow a story Need: We don’t regularly use data to inform our de-— can be absorbed into newsroom workflows and cisions in the newsroom, which means we are miss-publishing systems. ing out on an opportunity to better understand read- er behavior, adjust to trends and drive traffic to our journalism. This makes it more difficult to set goals and assess progress. A strong analytics operation is essential to every one of these digital needs. Opportunity: Analytics skills are needed in many parts of the newsroom, including for top-level strat- egy as well as desk-level decision-making. We need to hire analytics experts to work with news, plat- form, and product editors, newsroom strategists and the people trying to grow our audience. We need to also work closely with data scientists in the Con- sumer Insight Group.94 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Digital First

How to Get ThereDE-EMPHASIZE PRINT Rethink the “competition.” Ask every department to develop a list of new competitors for their sec- Shift the newsroom’s center of gravity away from tions, and encourage their backfield to familiarize Page One. Creating additional measures of suc- themselves with new apps and digital-only sites. cess, using metrics like traffic, sharing and en- gagement could help. Make digital a key part of evaluations. Reviews should include sections for digital as well as print Assess our processes, workflow, staffing and tra- performance. This should be the case for the ditions. Changing what we do will be difficult whole newsroom, particularly for leaders. Has without changing how we do it. This means look- their desk developed a smart strategy for social ing critically at every element of how we work. A media? Are they open and enthusiastic about ex- first step is listing ways in which we are optimized perimenting? Are they making smart, digitally fo- for print rather than digital. cused hires? To do this, we must first clearly com- municate digital expectations to our employees. Ask our editors to read more like our readers. Each desk should have at least one staff member monitoring its report on the mobile web, and on our mobile and tablet apps. Eventually this will become second nature.ASSESS DIGITAL NEEDS anything we need to make ourselves adaptable. That means constantly assessing needs, recruit- Reevaluate our current digital needs and create ing talent and changing structures. And that new positions. These range from the top (head means sometimes creating jobs with expiration of audience development, head of analytics) to dates to help us in transitional moments. the lower ranks (developers who build tools to streamline our reporting processes, a strategist to Add digital specialists to our staffing committee. manage our undervalued email newsletters). Once we have a sense of our needs, we need to fill them, and a digital specialist who participates Assess the digital capabilities of various desks and in vetting new hires and promotions would help fill the holes. We would notice quickly if National us identify gaps and the people best positioned to lacked a strong investigative reporter or if Metro fill them. Janet has already recommended such didn’t have a rewrite ace. Similarly, we should a move. track whether these desks have strong digital tal- ent — not just as producers but reporters and edi- Maintain a list of the best talents in digital media tors. Those with such skills should be encouraged and begin courting them. Right now other com- to share best practices within their desks. panies are aggressively bringing in digital talent. Because the Times newsroom is behind on many Build the newsroom out of Legos, not bricks. The fronts, like analytics and audience development, right structure for today won’t be the right struc- it is even more important that we identify game- ture for tomorrow. Our needs will change quickly and our skills will become out of date. More than 95

changing and game-improving talent. ist — on the business side. It is in our interest for Product, R&D, Design, Technology and Consum-Accept that digital talent is in high demand. To er Insight to have, and to help retain, top talent.hire digital talent will take more money, more Such moves are often logical extensions of jobs inpersuasion and more freedom once they are the digital newsroom. This would create a hugewithin The Times — even when candidates might new range of senior positions. It would also openstrike us as young or less accomplished. Develop- up another pool of future leaders for us.ers, product managers, user-experience design-ers and smart digital thinkers are commanding a Identify the rising digital stars in the newsroom.significant premium. Show them they are appreciated, and solicit ideas from them on how The Times can be better. HelpFind ways to empower our current digital staff. develop their careers and have them help us iden-We want a culture of experimentation in the tify more talent.newsroom. For example, we could give producersresponsibility for more testing, and then ask them Make a star hire. Talent attracts talent, and fewto share their findings with the organization. steps would send a better signal than getting an- other respected digital leader into a senior posi-Let employees transfer easily between newsroom tion. This would also help generate new ideas andand operational units. In many cases, the best strategies.positions for valued digital employees already ex-EXPLORE MORE SERIOUS STEPS room without paying Facebook wages would be to create a fellowship program in partnership with a Consider a task force to explore what it will take university like MIT and its Media Lab. Infusing to become a digital-first newsroom. We’ve seen a desks with digital trailblazers can lead to fruitful number of other newspapers take this approach digital collaboration. Once they’re in the door, we and more people are discussing this possibility have a better chance of retaining top performers. in our newsroom. Examining what it would take We can recruit “visiting professors” from Google, to become digital-first is a major effort and may Facebook and other companies. Such efforts also eventually require stand-alone group to lead it. serve as powerful recruiting tools for top talent. Consider creating a digital fellowship program. One way to bring top digital talent into the news-96 Strenghtening Our Newsroom | Digital First