burn!
Times deputy managing editor Jonathan Landman is so excited about the Nytimes.com's Thanksgiving Times topic page that, in a recently circulated letter to the troops, he couldn't help but rub it in the tryptophan-hating face of rival Rupert Murdoch.
Way back in 2005, somebody wrote a terrific story about easy ways to cook the Thanksgiving turkey. Somebody else wrote a wonderful headline: "The Pilgrims Didn't Brine." And what happened? It turned into fish wrap. Sure, it lurked in some obscure electronic corner on the web, but who'd ever find it? Until now. Because now we can proudly introduce The Thanksgiving Day Topic Page ...Hey Murdoch! How's that Dow Jones Thanksgiving page coming along?
How you like them apple crisps, Rupe?
Each Friday, NYT.com General Manager Vivian Schiller and 'Times' deputy managing editor Jonathan Landman write an in-house email on the subject of The Future and The Internet and The Newsroom.As of 4 a.m. today, when this week's email was sent, more than 1000 folks had declared themselves "Fans" of the
New York Times on the paper's new Facebook page. Here are some of the Facebook comments:"'NYTimes ... Freakonomics, Ethicist, Chess, Pogue, and all the news. Best!'
'Hi NYT. I try to never miss your daily e-output. ...'
'NYT, the nation's newspaper.'
'NYT rules!'
'Oh NYT how I love you. ...'
'Yes! The NYT is my religion.'
And this, from one Max Schindler of Mountain Lakes High School (Ah, the
elusive young reader): 'I love the nyt, more than anything else.'"
the new york times is just a fancy blog
The
New York Times is now carefully allowing comments on some articles, not just blog posts. According to an in-house email from NYT.com general manager Vivian Schiller and deputy managing editor
Jonathan Landman, "This week we rolled out some new technology for commentary on articles. It's more discriminating than the blog-comment platform and it gives readers more control. For instance, readers can recommend comments and view them in rank order
starting with the ones with the most recommendations. Editors
can choose an interesting selection for readers with time to read just a few.... You'll notice that we're only putting comments on a handful of articles at first. That's because we're still building our moderation force and the tools for automated moderation. There are some important features built into the system that you can't see and that we're not using yet. For example, producers and editors will be able to designate certain users as 'trusted,' potentially allowing some comments to bypass moderation. We're excited about the chance to experiment."
Each Friday, NYT.com General Manager Vivian Schiller and 'Times' deputy managing editor Jonathan Landman write an in-house email on the subject of The Future and The Internet and The Newsroom. Today: "[T]hink about the compulsive clickster. She returns three times in an hour, finds a new headline, clicks, thinks, 'Wait, didn't I read that before? The red thing says, "10:12 AM." But I already read some of this at 7:43 AM. Where's the new stuff?' Kind of confusing. Not so satisfying. Think of what a blog can do for her. It clearly demarcates the new stuff. It links to things we don't have, exposing layers of perspective in real time. It is fast, rich and deep. For the person in search of one-stop comprehensiveness, it might be an unpleasant adventure in ADD. [...] We actually maintain about 100 blogs now, about half of them active. Classy new ones roll out of the factory like Mercedes SUV's in Tuscaloosa."
Each Friday,
New York Times General Manager
Vivian Schiller and deputy managing editor
Jonathan Landman write an in-house email on webby advances at the paper. This week, reporters file stories from these things called BlackBerries! "Ben Shpigel made the best out of a ridiculous situation. While staking out the Yankees complex in Tampa, Ben sent short updates from the scene on his Blackberry as he and dozens of other reporters and photographers waited for a glimpse of Yankees executives (any Yankees executive) there to discuss Joe Torre's future.... In truth, there wasn't much news. And Ben was without a functioning
Internet connection. But he still
kept readers informed and entertained." Blog blog bloggety blog!
Each Friday,
New York Times General Manager
Vivian Schiller and deputy managing editor
Jonathan Landman write a letter on webby advances at the paper. From today's: "Web readers are different from newspaper readers. For one thing, they don't really organize their browsing along sectional lines."
Thank you. Item! It's
your paper now: "User. Generated. Content. Write it 100 times on the blackboard. Last week City Room
featured an item about fishing in New York City... A couple of hours later, a reader submitted a video he shot of fishermen on a pier in Bay Ridge
using this form we set up for that purpose. We have talented users.
Let's use them." Hey, you're a user, reader!
Times deputy managing editor
Jonathan Landman, in one of his weekly memos to the staff about "Innovation," lays this deepness on you (emphasis ours): "Times have changed.
Our online storytelling skills have evolved to the point where you really can get the whole story without reading a newspaper article. It's a remarkably rich experience that goes well beyond using video or maps or pictures to tell a story—something we (and others) have done well many times. The innovation lies in putting them together in a way that tells the story with all the nuance, comprehensiveness, authority and depth that define The
New York Times. (It's hard to imagine
online storytelling at this level coming from a non-integrated newsroom. Neither 'newspaper people' nor 'web people' could have done it alone.)"
Gawker
