Old-media companies' hope of making serious money by developing technology products carries "tall odds," writes Charlie Warzel. Challenges include "the natural tension between startups and old
media." Then there's the 1 in 50 "probability of anything you start succeeding," Warzel quotes a tech maven.
In this excellent article, Warzel takes readers inside the New York
Times' R&D lab, which has "only two marketable products in the pilot-testing phase." Ricochet, which "appears to hold the greatest marketing potential.... could potentially revolutionize
now-imprecise ad exchange audience targeting," writes Warzel. But the WaPo Labs' introduction of the Washington Post Social Reader, "a Facebook-synced discovery platform for Post content,..
made no money—a serious problem for a company dogged by circulation declines of nearly 8 percent daily and 15 percent Sunday this year alone."
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