iCEE.fest 2017. Is there life after Google and Facebook? Meagan Lopez, Global Digital Business Director at New York Times, talks about how the media can compete against the Internet giants
The media does not necessarily have to look at Google and Facebook as competitors, but as partners, and improve its offer as well as adapt the new platforms, including Snapchat Stories or virtual reality, Meagan Lopez, global digital business director at New York Times, revealed for EvoNews at iCEE.fest.
She stated that NY Times was among the first newspapers to partner up with Facebook when Facebook Instant was launched, which allows articles to be directly published onto the social media.
She also showed that the publication offers a free subscription to music service Spotify for those that choose to be subscribed to New York Times. The company is thus targeting a much wider audience.
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Lopez further stated that New York Times has over three million subscribers, especially after Donald Trump launched attacks on the newspapers, as well as a result of the fact that it follows the audience wherever it goes, which at the moment is on social media.
Most of the readers at New York Times are rather young, being a part of the ”millennial” generation – those who were born between 1980 and 2000.
Meagan Lopez stated that New York Times currently has three studios for content destined to virtual reality, in Hong Kong, Paris, London and New York. In addition, the company reinvents the way it displays commercials on its website.
Nevertheless, Lopez admitted that New York Times cannot compete with Google or Facebook, or the data they have on users. ”We have to do what we’re best at, which is telling stories with a cohesive and holistic way”, she said.
Regarding artificial intelligence, she mentioned that Washington Post is using software that writes sports articles. New York Times wants to use Google’s artificial intelligence for moderating article comments, though.
As far as the fake news phenomenon is concerned, Lopez stated that social networks have a huge responsibility in solving it, but that she cannot comment on Great Britain and Germany proposals of fining the tech companies that don’t eliminate extremist content.
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