Doing digital...

Writer for The Christchurch Press Alex van Wel is immersing himself in convergent thinking - the coming together of all forms of journalism online. He's in America on Fairfax Media's Mike Robson Fellowship. In Manhattan on day six, he spent the morning watching from the inside at the prestigious New York Times.


Times Square, 7th Ave & Broadway, NYC
Times Square may be where visitors try to take the pulse of the American media, but it's a block away at the New York Times where they'll find its digital heart.
At last count, the NYT online edition was getting more than 20 million unique website hits a month (Nielsen, September 2009) putting it in the enviable company of the web giants - like the UK's Guardian newspaper.

There’s no doubt digital journalism has changed the rhythm in the NYT's gleaming Manhattan HQ.
New York Times building, 620 8th Ave, Manhattan
Its core web team is positioned in the centre of its 1100-strong newsroom, running the "live" site.
In the middle sits the Homepage Editor, staring intently at two large computer screens, writing, messaging, issuing instructions - pausing only occasionally. Around him, an army of writers feeds the machine.

It's much like a traditional broadcast environment - a 24-hour operation, with constant updates, headline and content changes.
No longer just focused on the morning print edition, the NYT staff know that news online means different mediums, diverse content, interactivity and immediacy.

The paper has around 100 web producers to make it all come together online. They are not there to write original copy, but to ensure the best of the organisation’s content is displayed in the most engaging and imaginative way possible.
For them multi-media is a playground, not an obligation.
They have a vital production role, but are also quietly referred to as "change agents" - gently coaxing the organisation out of any lingering old ways and into the new.
The NYT sees digital as an opportunity to use a much wider range of tools to tell its stories, and it wants to be the best at it.

Take a look at this business piece on the shenanigans behind private equity. Once through the introduction, you'll see a range of choices appear...
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/business/2009-private-equity/index.html

But it’s not only on the big stories. A lot of time was given to this ‘feature’ on a local New York neighbourhood, Harlem…
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/01/22/nyregion/sugarhill.html

On politics, the paper will carefully draw on its in-house knowledge…
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/politics/2008-election-overview/

And on foreign stories it’ll think carefully how to get its readers closer to the story being told…
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/01/17/world/americas/haiti-earthquake-multimedia.html

Most striking though - digitally-speaking - is the NYT’s morning editorial meeting. The Executive Editor and his section heads arrive promptly at 10.30. They seat themselves around a huge, oval-shaped table in a cavernous room.
Visitors sit behind on two sides, in straight rows. Close to 30 people attend the meeting, but the space still seems un-filled.
The atmosphere is relaxed, but highly-ordered.
At one end of the room is a colossal viewing screen, and on it the NYT home page peers down, a commanding presence.

The Digital News Editor is the first to speak.
He discusses the current headline, and the multi-media offering around it.
Next he scrolls down the page to highlight various stories.
Then he talks about what will be coming up online during the day.
The entire room is drawn into the digital offering, editors silently prodded to consider how they may fit in over the next 24 hours.
Only then is the next morning's paper discussed.