Product Description

The Times’ events and conferences consists of Times Talks, The New York Times Travel Show, and various niche conferences for industry professionals held around the world. As live events continue to demonstrate revenue-generating potential for publications across the country, The Times’ initiatives attempt to leverage the publication’s brand into convening power. Events provide ample opportunity for The Times to build and strengthen relationships with corporate sponsors as well as individual subscribers. Their success on both these platforms will be evaluated below.

Key Features

Times Talks

Since 1998, Times Talks have charged attendees $40 to witness a conversation between a Times journalist and an individual of the moment – a relevant talent or thinker. Times Talks include actresses, activists, politicians, chefs, directors, writers, etc. Events are hosted in New York at the Times center, but also around the world. Times Talks have partnered with various festivals such as Luminato in Toronto, Cannes and Sundance film festivals, and they were also hosted at the 2012 Olympics in London.

New York Times Travel Show

This annually scheduled weekend event held at the Java Center hosts 500+ booths from across the globe, 20,000 + travel and industry professional attendees, 150+ travel industry speakers and experts, and 100+ cultural presentations from around the world. The event brands itself as an “international celebration.” Attendees are told they will gain valuable travel tips, explore hot spots, and book exclusive deals to their dream destinations right at the show.

Conferences

Industry professionals who wish to attend a conference must request an invitation at the rate of approximately $500. Most conferences are hosted by a Times staff member who is an expert in the field of interest. Examples include:

• Cities For Tomorrow: hosted by Times’ architecture critic Michael Kimmelman. The event explores cutting-edge innovations reshaping the world’s urban areas, and is marketed as an opportunity for municipal officials, engineers, contractors, innovators and architects to do networking

Events are also sponsored by the international edition of the paper, such as:

• Athens Democracy Forum: One of the most cerebral Times conferences, the forum is “held at the site where the seeds of democracy were planted 2,500 years ago.” The event coincides with the International Democracy Day and is held in cooperation with the United Nations Democracy Fund and the City of Athens, to reflect on the state of liberal democracies. The forum identifies the rise of regime states in China and Russia, growing inequality, Islamic fundamentalism, and technological innovation and the four major influences threatening democracy today. Many Times staff members speak at this conference, including an editorial cartoonist and the chief European business correspondent.
• The Oil & Money conference: Co-hosted by Energy Intelligence. Since 1980, the conference has gathered annually to witness the most significant senior executives from the petroleum and natural gas industry engage in candid, high level discussions about issues facing the industry. There are 450 attendees from more than 40 countries. “Don’t make your absence conspicuous,” warns The Times on the conference’s website.
• International Luxury Conference: This year’s conference will be hosted at the Palais de Versailles by the fashion director of The New York Times, Vanessa Friedman. The event invites “business leaders, luminaries and visionaries from across the industry” to discuss the global luxury market.

Women In The World Summit

On December 15^th 2014, The Times announced its collaboration with Tina Brown’s initiative, Women in the World LLC. The Times launched a new digital platform for Women in the World – tied to the publication’s homepage – and took on the role of selling sponsorships and advertising for the Women in the World event series. Each summit, taking place in a different country, convenes inspirational women to tell their stories and offer solutions to building equality for women around the globe. The 2015 series kicked off in New York at the Lincoln Center in partnership with The Times.

Key People

• Charles Duhigg: Senior Editor and Newsroom Leader, NYT Live. Pulitzer Prize-winning business reporter who has worked at The Times since 2006.
• Dorothea Herrey: Senior Vice President, NYT Live. Previously the head of the Wall Street Journal’s conference business. She starts June 1, 2025 and will report to Chief Revenue Officer Meredith Kopit Levien

Strategy

Events are a unique revenue-generating strategy because physical presence cannot be replicated. Original online articles can be aggregated by other hosts, and are constantly resurfacing in other ways. By contrast, events are irreproducible – a live speaker cannot be copied – and so events continue to go up in value in the media world. In fact, 10% of all marketing money in the U.S. is spent on events, amounting to $40 billion or more. Through events The Times can leverage its editorial reputation. With the exception of The Times Travel Show, the majority of events and conferences employ The Times’ staff of reporters and critics. Those who recognize The Times as the nation’s most prestigious news source will naturally assume that it offers events of comparable quality. Other quality news sites are well past the proof-of-concept stage and are making money with the strategy so it would not make sense for the Times to be a hold out.

Competitors

• AtlanticLIVE: With over 125 events a year, The Atlantic hosts one of the most comprehensive events programs connected to an editorial legacy. Their Flagship Programs function like think tanks. “New York Ideas,” for instance, convenes a massive audience who look forward to hearing from unique and innovative individuals – be it a member of NASA, a gun violence activist, a cronut chef. Their single-topic programs offer opportunities for audiences to focus on something more specific – a health forum, or a small businesses forum.
• Business Insider: Another example of a publication that successfully leverages its brand. With its Ignition event, it hosts the “future of digital” and over 700 senior executives from technology, media, entertainment, investing, and finance industries attend to explore the emerging business models of digital media.
• Techcrunch also leverages its brand by hosting hackathons and a variety of technology conferences.
• The New Yorker has capitalized on it’s inherent connection to the city in a way that The Times and its metro section have failed to do. Annually, The New Yorker Festival features New York personnel and events – “Traveling Dinner Parties” stands out as a favorite. For just over $200, attendees indulge in a critic-curated dinner, with each portion of the meal served at a different restaurant in New York.
• 92^nd Street Y presents events that are almost identical to Times Talks, except each event costs $30, and the company often hosts up to seven events a day.

What It Does Right

In comparison to its other event initiatives, The Times has mastered the art of conferences. Sponsors are consistently drawn to these niche industry events, where they are promised opportunities to benefit from Times’ branding, advertisement space, and the potential to host receptions and network with colleagues. In the first quarter of 2015, the company’s conference revenue was up by 6.5%.

What It Does Wrong

Given Times’ success forging relationships with sponsors through its niche conferences, criticisms will focus on Times Talks and the publication’s failure to connect with its readers through events.

Areas For Improvement

• Better In-site Promotion: Times Talks are not properly featured on the company’s website. In fact, unless Googled separately, I could not find a way to reach the Times Talks portal through the publication’s homepage. The photo below suggests a layout that could put Times Talks in the spotlight.

• Giving Away Too Much: Times Talks are often posted in full length on the company’s website, without any ads before hand - this is a missed opportunity for ad revenue.
• Better Highlights: Times Talks that are not posted in their entirety online are often featured with a video “highlight.” Recognizing that the purpose of a highlight should be to stimulate viewers’ curiosity in Times Talks, I am not convinced that the highlights are pulling the most provocative, groundbreaking, or comedic soundbites from Times Talks. For example, from a Times Talk with Jon Stewart, Maziar Bahari, and Times book critic book critic Janet Maslin, the video highlight features a segment in which Maslin asks Stewart about his experience promoting the film Rosewater at press events. This video highlight can’t possibly be the “meat” of what was likely a very stimulating conversation.

• Better Branding and Marketing: I don’t believe The Times does an optimum job of branding its Times Talks. The photo above features the description that accompanies each video - it usually explains who the participants are, why they are relevant, and what they will discuss. The Times should assume that viewers are already “in the know” - after all, they arrived at this page on their own volition. Instead, why not intrigue viewers with a single provocative quote? These quotes could be repurposed through social media.
• Expand Events: The New York Times should focus on connecting with its readership in addition to its sponsors. There’s no reason The New York Times couldn’t host a musical festival, cooking classes, or an event like The New Yorker Festival’s Traveling Dinner Parties. The Times has massive convening power. If it doesn’t take advantage of that, it’s not leveraging its brand completely. The Times’ partnership with Tina Brown in hosting the Women in the World event series was a major step in the right direction.
• Update the Travel Show: In addition to building new events, The Times should also refine those that already exist – particularly The Times Travel Show, which has a mandate that seems confusing and outdated. If the purpose of the Travel Show is really to seek out new destinations and book exclusive deals, Expedia is doing a better job.

To conclude, The Times should focus on producing excellent (and shareable) “highlight” clips, and start introducing advertisements before video recaps. It should also consider using provocative sound bites from Times Talks as marketing material, rather than focusing on summary recaps that are likely redundant. Consolidate Times Talks’ role at international events, refine the Travel Show, and introduce many new events targeted at its readers.

Key Links

• Nieman Lab, The Newsonomics of the the Chattanooga Events Choo Choo - explains the potential of events as a source of revenue in the context of a small Chattanooga paper, often referred to as one of the first publications to master the art of event planning.
• Nieman Lab, What makes the Texas Tribune’s event business so successful?
• Nieman Lab, Putting on a show: How NPR is retooling its events strategy. “We’re going to learn from our mistakes and improve.”
• Digiday, Inside The Atlantic’s events juggernaut.
• American Press Institute, The Best Strategies for Generating Revenue Through Events - API’s review of the best ways to make money through events.
• The New York Times’ Homepage for Events