New York Times Expands Little-Used Virtual Reality Content While Laying Off Actual Reporters

Virtual deja vu all over again:

AdWeek -- New York Times Doubles Down on Virtual Reality at NewFronts:

"Today we stand before you as the leaders in virtual reality journalism," declared New York Times Magazine editor in chief Jake Silverstein, who noted that since the Times debuted its first VR film exactly one year ago, it has distributed more than 1 million Google Cardboard viewers to subscribers through a partnership with Google and GE (with plans to distribute another 300,000 this year) and debuted a VR viewer app that became the most successful product launch in Times history.

Like I said last February, those numbers are misleading: The Times has tens of millions of readers, but according to Google Play, the NYT VR app has only been installed 100,000-500,000 times. (This despite the fact that Google's shipped 5 million units of the Google Cardboard VR viewer, which works with the NYT's app.) On App Annie, the analytics service, the app doesn't even register among Google Play's top 1000 apps (after a brief appearance at the top during its November launch), suggesting little viral or organic growth. 

And if you check Google Play now, three months after I noted that lack of growth, you'll see the Times' VR app has still not been downloaded over 500,000 times.

All this might be fine if this was just an experiment in a new medium -- just as Reuters' own experiment in virtual reporting also failed -- except when you notice what the Times is doing to its actual reporting staff:

The New York Times Co. said Tuesday it would cut about 70 jobs as part of an effort to streamline its international operations. The newspaper publisher said it will be redesigning the international print edition -- the International New York Times -- and moving certain editing and production operations from Paris to Hong Kong and New York. “To remain competitive, we need to adapt to a changing market. We need to rethink what the print New York Times means,” the paper said in a memo to international staff members.

I know the Times is not just a newspaper but a massive media corporation as well, but surely some of their own staff can see the irony of decreasing its reach as the world's most influential news outlet while enthusiastically increasing investment in an unproven technology -- instead of critically reporting on it.

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Comments

[Andy Mallon]

Isn't this just a continuation of the trend of the past ten years or more where print media is going broke against digital delivery of content? The big problem with digital versions of print is getting consumers to pay for it.

[Estelle]

@Andy: You are right about the trend but the article has nothing to do with it.

[Nalates]

I don't see presenting news in a VR format as adding information, which is what people want from news. Pictures are nice and can demonstrate what the words are saying about a story. But, there isn't much VR can add, IMO.

I think a video of a street event provides as much information as a VR presentation of the same event. The experience of a riot with VR would have more impact. But, who is looking for that? Would it be a good or bad thing?

Laying off the reporters and support staff is a repeating process at NYT. Doesn't that reduce their ability to gather news? Doesn't that make them less interesting to their primary demographic, those looking for news?

We are seeing print media dying out. It is difficult to find if liberal/conservative bias in media speeds or slows the demise of a publication.

[Ciaran Laval]

The media is struggling with the immediacy of news in the digital age. I'm not sure that laying off reporters is the right way to go though, they need engaging content, far too much hot button issues for clicks these days.