Norway the Slow Way
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
Some pics if anyone cares: http://cortesi.smugmug.com/Scandinavia-2014/Trip-Segments/Hu...
It is, in fact, impossible to measure the length of a coastline: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox
This accounts for the fact that contrary to the article’s stated length of 64,000 miles, the World Factbook gives the length as 15,626 miles¹ and the World Resources Institute once gave the same length as 33,056 miles².
① https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...
② http://web.archive.org/web/20120419075053/http://earthtrends...
EDIT: I misread — the article’s actual percentage is a far more reasonable 67%. I withdraw my objection.
> the entire United States coastline measures 95,471 miles).
> 150%
Did you misread that? You quote Notway as havig a shorter coastline.
Thank you, yes. Post edited.
It had over 3.5 Million page views the first week. Estimates are that it took about three man-months to write and design the long article. But that was two years ago, and without any of the tools and experience they have now.
That's expensive, but napkin-calculations can be done:
Average yearly at NY Times according to Google is: $98 167 That means about $33 000 plus some taxes and costs for three monte, say, $50 000 then.
Can you sell one ad space in such an article at $50 000 / 3 500 000 = $14.29 per 1k impression?
NY Times sells ads at $6.29 for 1k impression on their sports pages. On the Snow Fall article three such ads would be enough to cover the estimated costs.
As a comparative note: A full page print ad costs $10 per estimated reader, it is possible that this Norway article is also published in the regular print, and will therefore recuperate some costs there as well.
http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/ http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/two-gunshots/ http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/15/magazine/bad-p... http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/gun-country/ http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/the-jockey/ http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/tomato-can-blues/
To keep the analogy, NY-times is doing web-page stories Broadway-style. Perhaps they found an unexplored marked, perhaps it is too soon. But sooner or later, the art-form of story telling on the web is going to be taken to the next level done by professionals for a lot more money than any amateurs telling the same story.
In fact, I'm betting on it by trying to find a market for being the creator of things like this. I haven't gotten started yet, but it's at the top of my 'business opportunities' list. I think I mostly just need to find someone who is good at visualizing data, or dive into that myself.
leaving for bergen myself in a couple of hours: can't wait
i'd love to see other (news) publishers to walk this path as the options are there, they just need some creativity
Apparently NYT had a big come-to-Jesus meeting earlier this year, where they discussed the challenges their business model is facing, and resolved to do something about it. Who's to say whether this stuff will move the needle for them. But at least they're doing interesting things, and I support them.
NYT can't necessarily see the future (when it comes to journalism, nobody can). But it recognizes that its future lies in high-quality articles, and it's investing in new definitions of quality. Many of its competitors are moving in the opposite direction, adopting practices from content farms and clickbait sites. In the long run, NYT will need to do a lot more to rethink its economics. But for now, its investment in quality is probably a good move.
IMO they need to get the basics right first. Why, for instance, can't I use their iPad app to access all of the content from the print edition, and in a similarly-dense format?
Fly into Tromsø, spend a couple of days there, then rent a car and head west. Gorgeous scenery, twenty-four-hour sunlight, great hiking, and mild weather - we loved it.
I would recommend spending more time in Moskenesøya and less in Tromsø (or just avoid it). Go to Tromsø during the winter for seeing the northern lights instead :D
The cultural commentary of how parts of the world are now moving at vastly different speeds to the point where we are almost seeing bona fide time-travel seems WAY more important to think about.
How was this article an example of that?
It's an admirable attempt at telling a story and I appreciate the journalism. Perhaps I'm ADD, but I just don't have the attention span to get engrossed in this kind of format and follow every word through to the end.