| The Future-Facing Products page is the most interesting. The bottom row of icons includes three non-advertising sources of revenue: merch, events and eduction. The merch is self-explanatory. It's what musicians rely on, too. The events parallel how tech blogs make their money. And the courses are an echo of how the Washington Post relied on Kaplan for its profit, until Bezos solved that problem. Like most things tied to the NYT, the self congratulatory tone often obstructs a clear view of reality. This sentence, for example, is laughable: "That same year, the Times launched its Chinese website, with staff based in China. Though later blocked by the Chinese government, it has been largely considered a success." Losing access to 99% of all Chinese-language readers is the opposite of success, and implies that the NYT deeply misread how little its coverage was aligned with the rules of Xi Jinping's regime. The man they wanted to lead the Beijing bureau ended up stuck in Hong Kong for lack of a visa, and is now the nominal head of the IHT newsroom there. |