The New York Times, The BBC & Video

The future face of The New York Times

The New York Times Company today announced that they were hiring Mark Thompson, former Director General of The BBC to be the new President and CEO of The Times Company.

The Times’ choice of Thompson says a lot about where The Times is going and more to the point, where the whole world of former print publications is going.

It is going, in the words of Arthur Sulzberger, Chairman of the Times Company and publisher of the paper, to video

“We have people who understand print very well, the best in the business.  We have people who understand advertising very well, the best in the business. But our future is on to video, to social, to mobile. It doesn’t mirror what we’ve done. it broadens what we are going to do.”

Well, this is a pretty good indictor not only of where The Times is headed, but also where the whole world of print and journalism is headed:

Video.

And no wonder.

We live in a world inundated with screens.  The average American will spend an astonishing 8.5 hours a day staring at screens – between computers, pads, phones and TV.  That’s more time spent staring at screens than spent sleeping. Screenwatching is now our number one activity. We are the Olympic Gold Champions of screen watching.

And those screens demand video.  Lots of it.

Few people in the world have the depth of Mark Thompson’s experience in the combination of digital and video.

My friend, Pat Younge, Chief Creative Officer at The BBC wrote to me on news of Thompson’s new job and asked where the NY Times was going to get so much high quality video at a reasonable cost.

The answer, of course, is in the palm of your hand.

YOUR hand.

It’s right there, in your iPhone, which can shoot broadcast quality video, edit it, and send it to every social media there is at the literal touch of a button.

So welcome, Mark Thompson, to The New York Times, and welcome, The New York Times, to the new and very exciting world of inexpensive, high quality video done by anyone and everyone with an idea to express or a story to tell.

 

Michael Rosenblum

For more than 30 years, Michael Rosenblum has been on the cutting edge of the digital video journalism revolution. During this time, he has lead a drive for video literacy, and the complete rethinking of how television is made and controlled. His work has included: The complete transitioning of The BBC's national network (UK) to a VJ-driven model, starting in 2002. The complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United State's Government's broadcasting agency, (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the VJ paradigm (1998-present). The construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company, and the largest producer of non-fiction television in the US. Rosenblum was both the founder and President of NYT TV, (all based on this paradigm (1996-1998). The President and Founder of Video News International, a global VJ-driven newsgathering company, with more than 100 journalists around the world. (1993-1996). Other clients include Spectrum News, Verizon and CBS News.