Göteborg: New York Times - "Fast is good, but fast with quality is better"

Jim Roberts, Editor of Digital News at New York Times, USA, spoke about innovations in his newsroom at the second session of the 15th World Editors Forum, part of the 61st World Newspaper Congress.

The integration of print and the New York Times' website has gone far. According to Mr Roberts it's "much more integrated than less at New York Times." Mr Roberts himself came from a background as a journalist at the printed paper and moved onto the website, a situation not uncommon at NY Times.

At an early stage the website was merely a new platform, a way to reach more readers. From about 2003 and on the potential of an integrated newsdesk was truly realised. In the words of Mr Roberts; "A story can be so much richer with multimedia." The adding of blogs, video, audio and illustrated graphics gives news a whole other dimension. Continuous news is another major positive part of the website. The possibility to update, especially foreign news, from minute to minute is changing the entire way news works and how it reaches its readers. What must be emphasized though is that the introduction and growth of website news must not cause a decline of quality when it comes to the presentation of the news story; "Fast is good, but fast with quality is better". At the New York Times, this has been the policy, but recruiting qualified staff is quite difficult. Current journalists have had to learn to also manage the web.

Finding and hiring web journalists in a competetive market is one of the challenges ahead. Discovering and learning what actually works, video, audio etc., is another challenge. Finding what works leads the relationship with readers and users. One thing that has been difficult, according to Roberts, is creating and being the center of a social network. But this will allow the paper to receive immediate feedback from readers who can comment on the good and bad of the Times' coverage. Through this, the paper would be able to "re-direct alot of energy back to the printed paper", said Roberts.