Product Development Shifts into Full Gear

At The New York Times all the news that's fit to print may be printed in a truncated version of its daily print edition at a discounted rate, another attempt to provide access to some of the best news content available in the English language to a broader audience.

Reportedly, the shorter Times would a selection of the day's best content for roughly half the price. This, I assume, would imply more curation (always a plus). The industry will be watching this move from the Times with interest: less paper to print daily, but perhaps a larger print package for weekend. IN my view, this is the right thing to do, and may signal the day when there is NO printed Times Monday through Friday, something we are definitely sure will happen.

It is highly probably that this reduced print edition may be a traditional product inspired by the NYT Now, the iPhone app, which the newspaper promotes as "for the moments when you only have a moment". In other words, bringing the concept of time saved to print.

Readers of TheMarioBlog are familiar with Colombia's El Tiempo where our collaboration with the team involved reduced the Monday thru Friday product from six to three daily sections--with much success. That project proved that less is best works for print, too. Three years ago we were anticipating that readers felt a certain degree of guilt as they did not get through the reading of their daily newspaper. A smaller print edition allowed for the satisfactions without any of the guilt.

The Wall Street Journal to attract millenials

News Corp considers app-based news service to attract 'millennials'

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/jul/31/news-corporation-digital-media?utm_source=API%27s+Need+to+Know+newsletter&utm_campaign=8b0cd20b9a-Need_to_Know_July_31_20147_31_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e3bf78af04-8b0cd20b9a-31701869

We also see in the Financial Times and The Guardian that News Corp, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, is diligently working on an app-based news service to blend original reporting with repurposed content from its many outlets. This one may be out as soon as early fall.

The new product, which would emphasize mobile platforms, is to be aimed at people born between 1980 and 2000 who have never developed a newsprint habit, according to these articles

We assume it will be highly curated and, as in the case of the Times, will be an attempt to engage a young audience and possibly hook them as subscribers.

Both of these iconic publications know the value of experimenting, creating new products and attracting those elusive younger audiences. The rest of the industry watches with interest. So do we.