How to Build a TimesMachine
I love the NY Times but don&#x27;t understand them. Their business is failing; they risk the financial collapse of the world&#x27;s leading institution of journalism (IMHO), and they are investing resources in republshing old stories that hardly anyone reads and already are available to the public, in a different layout (if I understand correctly).<p>The resources they are diverting to this project are IT resources (along with management attention, organizational focus, and precious funding), and IT is their greatest challenge. I&#x27;d guess that a better use of those resources would be to focus them on the core, existential issues: The website and app. Or at least cut the expenses and improve the bottom line. Imagine if you were an investor in some other business, similarly precarious, and saw projects like these announced.<p>From the outside they seem to live in the past and to be obsessed with their history and prestige. Could there be a better symbol of that than their attention to what 30 year old stories looked like <i>on paper</i>? Ah, the good old days, the province of history books - but not of successful businesses. The Times&#x27; future depends 100% on how well they deliver the news, on computer screens, today and tomorrow.<p>I know little about the NY Times business so maybe it&#x27;s not as crazy as it seems, but they sure worry me.