The director of a new documentary on the paper, Andrew Rossi, thought its death was a definite chance when he started filming in late 2009.
''Two weeks after I started shooting, the Times underwent historic lay-offs, eliminating 100 positions in their newsroom,'' he says. ''There was a sense of apocalypse.''
Changing newsroom ... a scene from Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times which examines the news business. One of the inspirations for the documentary was a controversial article in The Atlantic last year that wrongly claimed declining circulation and advertising revenue could force the Times to default on its debts.
And after observing a tumultuous time in its history - including the first WikiLeaks scoops - Rossi believes the paper's prospects of survival have improved.
''They're certainly not out of the woods,'' he says.
''I don't think anyone believes that print journalism is in a safe and healthy place. That being said, the pay wall that they erected has actually been successful as measured in a couple of different ways.
''Number one, they've got over 250,000 people who've opted into it. Even though that's a small chunk of change at the end of the day, it's a very strong sign that there are people who … would like to support the paper a` la public media that's funded by contributors.
''Number two, they were able to construct it in a smart way that did not significantly erode their traffic to their website. So you can click on a link to an article in the Times from Twitter or Facebook and it doesn't count to your allotment of articles before you have to actually pay up.''
Rossi says that, encouragingly, revenue from online advertising has increased in recent quarters. His gut instinct is now that the paper will survive ''as long as the quality journalism brand promise stays true'' because readers will stay loyal to the paper as advertising models shift.
Making the documentary has given Rossi insights into a viable future for newspapers.
''One of the trends that emerges in the film is the role of hybrid models,'' he says. ''We see [investigative newsroom] ProPublica, an institution that lives online and doesn't have to pay for trucks and paper. It has a non-profit basis and is able to produce these investigative pieces that are then published in places like The New York Times or 60 Minutes.
''Even WikiLeaks is an example of hybrid models in action. Technology allowed WikiLeaks to compile all its trove of data but ultimately to get those stories processed and packaged into stories that gave all the information meaning, the skill sets of journalists at a traditional paper actually were perfect.''
Page One: A Year Inside The New York Times opens at Dendy Newtown on Thursday.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/times-changing-in-race-for-survival-20110908-1jzlf.html#ixzz1XRG1lNJ1
