A new dawn has risen over the east side of Eighth Avenue New York, New York. The New York Times, one of the most veteran and respectable news publications in the world, has decided to take a leap into the new media world with a surprising partnership.
Hey NYT, although it isn’t going to be a smooth landing I want to welcome you to the future!
The NYT has issued a press release announcing on a new content partnership with the magazine-style reader mobile app, Flipboard. The deal will allow the NYT subscribers to browse the publishing’s premium content (all videos, photos, slideshows, full articles/blogs) through the Flipboard app for iOS devices.
From June 28th, the NYT will begun appearing on Flipboard and by using an authentication feature specifically designed for this deal, the paper’s subscribers will have access to its premium content optimized for their iPhone or iPad. Just as on the NYT site, the Top News section will be free on Flipboard as well.
The deal specifics weren’t revealed and it is only known that the NYT and Flipboard will split the advertising revenue driven from the partnership. Here’s what the NYTimes.com’s general manager Denise Warren had to say about the new deal:
We’re excited to offer our subscribers the option of Flipboard’s rich experience and also to bring our authoritative news, opinion and superior multimedia to a new audience of Flipboard users who may not yet be Times subscribers.
Over the past decade or so, the NYT alongside its 108 Pulitzer Prizes (most awarded organization worldwide) has watched how people are shifting more and more towards new media properties such as blogs and social networks, while their old traditional media business has been declining gradually.
Sure, the NYT website is the most visited newspaper site online but its profits aren’t even remotely close to what the printed newspaper used to earn. Through this new partnership, the NYT plans to expand its online and mobile presence while approaching more audiences and creating another revenue stream for the company.
From Flipboard’s side, it is even a much greater win. Besides the obvious benefit of creating a potentially highly lucrative revenue source, that is a huge reputation acknowledgement which could draw a lot more users to use Flipboard in general.
I think it is pretty fair to summarize this deal as one step towards the future by a traditional media publication and one giant win of a new media publication.
