JOCIS interviewed Michael Greenspon, the general manager of NYT Licensing and print innovation for The New York Times at WAN-IFRA conference

Neves, João

English

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146
Do the main sources of revenue of The 
New York Times’s business come from a 
traditional, digital or a mixed model?
Michael Greenspon: It’s a mixed model. 
Right now I would say we’re roughly 60% 
print, probably 35% pure digital and 5% oth-
er. The other way we cut it is subscription, 
plus advertising, and we’re probably 2/3 
subscription.
What are you currently investing in the 
most: in the traditional, digital or in a 
mixed model?
We are investing more in digital.
What are the sources of revenue of your 
business?
Our biggest source of revenue is from 
subscriptions. The second largest source 
is advertising, and then we have a mix of 
other revenue streams, including licensing, 
affiliate revenue and rent.
Has the impact of the digital changed your 
sources of revenue?
Absolutely. We now have digital sources of 
revenue. The print sources have declined.
How important are potential partners for 
the success of your business model?
We need strong relationships with the 
platforms for a level of success. They are 
also competitors of ours, so it becomes an 
interesting relationship.
What kind of partners do you consid-
er the most important to your business 
(technological partners or industry/tra-
ditional partners)?
To the overall company, I would say the 
technological partners.
What is your value proposition?
It’s high quality journalism worth paying for. 
Is your value proposition mostly based on 
your relationship with consumers, with 
technological distribution channels or 
with the rest of the media industry?
I would say consumer. We’re a consumer-
first business, so that relationship is far 
and away the most important.
The New Challenges Faced by Media 
Business Models. An interview 
with Michael Greenspon
by João neves
JOCIS interviewed Michael Greenspon, the general manager of NYT Licens-
ing and print innovation for The New York Times at WAN-IFRA conference.
147
Are there any intentions to integrate contri-
butions from the academic world into your 
business decisions in terms of R&D?
We’re certainly knowledgeable and aware 
of the research that’s going on, so it’s a 
factor in the decision-making.
How do you integrate the academic con-
tributions into your company in terms of 
R&D and decision-making?
It’s building the knowledge base, so it’s 
rare that it will be the tipping point in 
the decision. But it’s helpful to see what 
direction people are moving or what 
direction people are thinking about.
Within your strategy to engage with your 
media consumers, what do you value the 
most: communication, product or easy 
access to the service?
We are the service, so it’s that relationship.
Has the new General Data Protection 
Regulation (GDPR) caused any difficul-
ties for the knowledge and creation of 
the profile of your consumer?
It’s unclear at this point because it’s brand new. 
It certainly has created a lot of work, but it’s 
unclear what the actual impact will be.
Has the new advertisement alignment 
had an impact on the way the NYT buys 
or sells advertising space?
Absolutely. We are selling a lot less directly, 
so again, historically, we’re a relationship 
business and that was true when it came 
to the consumer and the advertising side, 
where we had very personal relationships 
with the owners of the companies that 
were advertising. Now, a lot of it is pro-
grammatic, a lot of it is through Google and 
others. It is changing completely.
Are distribution networks or models that 
you use for distributing your product/
service suited to these changes in adver-
tising?
I think so. For us, again, putting the li-
censing aside, the core business is about 
attracting people to our site, and it’s less 
about distributing to other sites.
Are these distribution networks suited to 
your target audiences? Do you think some-
thing needs to be changed at this level?
I think so. I think that the relationship be-
tween media companies and the platforms 
has to evolve. I’m not quite sure in the face 
of GDPR how that evolves, but it needs to 
be a more symbiotic relationship.
Michael greenspon is the general man-
ager of NYT Licensing and print innovation 
for The New York Times. Michael has over 
20 years of media business experience.
148
“We need strong relationships 
with the platforms for a level 
of success. They are also 
competitors of ours, so it becomes 
an interesting relationship.”
149
How have your funding and income sources 
changed in the past two years?
Increasing subscribers and decreasing 
advertising.
Are these changes in line with the market 
or not?
We’re outperforming the market.
What are the main challenges faced by 
your media company’s business develop-
ment? Are they technological, regulatory 
or commercial?
Commercial. We are a traditional print busi-
ness. We are moving to a digital business 
and we’re succeeding far more than every-
body else, but we also have a fifteen-hun-
dred-person newsroom. Right now our 
digital revenue is not sufficient to support 
that, so we need to grow it exponentially 
for the eventual day, hopefully very far into 
the future, when print is not there.
When do you think that will happen?
I say, back in the early 2000s, the chairman 
of our company famously said print would 
be gone in five years. Probably five years 
ago, we said print would be gone in ten 
years. I think I’ll go to fifteen years, pushing 
it further out - five, ten, fifteen.
What is the importance and challenges 
posed by Artificial Intelligence and robotics 
technologies to your media business?
I have no idea. I think it will be more oppor-
tunity than challenge. It will help us with 
research, perhaps reducing costs.
What are the most important characteris-
tics of the success of your business model? 
We’ve got a few options for you to choose 
from: technological innovation; relation-
ship with the consumer; brand value; open 
innovation and co-creation, and others 
(please specify).
I’d say it’s a couple of those. It’s the rela-
tionship with the consumer but, at the end 
of the day, that is based on our brand value.
Does your business model require funding? If 
so, where will you find such funding?
We’re self-funded.
In your opinion, what is currently changing 
in terms of management, marketing and 
administration of media companies?
It’s less so in our company, but I think the 
primary place is a change in our marketing as 
they all switch from an advertiser supported 
model to a subscriber one. We did that ten 
years ago, so we’re ahead, currently.
In your opinion, what is currently chang-
ing in terms of the work of journalists 
and content producers?
We’re asking our journalists to fundamen-
tally do the same thing, but in more ways. 
For the last 150 years, we have asked our 
journalists to protect democracy, to uncov-
er hidden truths. We’re still asking them to 
do that; we just now want them not only 
to write about it, but also to tweet about it, 
to go on TV and talk about it, and take out 
their camera and take a picture of it.


The new challenges faced by media business models. An interview with Michael Greenspon

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The new challenges faced by media business models. An interview with Michael Greenspon

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