the NYT is your ambitious older sibling who just can't chill, can she

There are two kinds of people in this world: either you have an actual subscription to Wired magazine, or your paper goods budget is so tight that you can’t afford Kleenex AND Charmin on the same trip* — so just in case, for whatever reason, you haven’t read the Wired cover story checking in on A.G. Sulzberger’s plans for the New York Times, here’s the ~digital~ link.

As a refresher, A.G. is the heir apparent to the NYT empire, which makes him the one essentially in charge of Keeping Journalism Going. It’s a good read to get a picture of what he’s got planned, and what the future of the media might look like soon.

Tl;dr, they’re going ham on the digital subscriber model:

“The main goal isn’t simply to maximize revenue from advertising—the strategy that keeps the lights on and the content free at upstarts like the Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, and Vox. It’s to transform the Times’ digital subscriptions into the main engine of a billion-dollar business, one that could pay to put reporters on the ground in 174 countries even if (OK, when) the printing presses stop forever.

“To hit that mark, the Times is embarking on an ambitious plan inspired by the strategies of Netflix, Spotify, and HBO: invest heavily in a core offering (which, for the Times, is journalism) while continuously adding new online services and features (from personalized fitness advice and interactive newsbots to virtual reality films) so that a subscription becomes indispensable to the lives of its existing subscribers and more attractive to future ones.”

Interesting stuff — and sure, maybe the Times can pull this off, but definitely poses the question: what about literally every other non-behemoth media outlet???

Like Deez Links? Forward to a print newspaper.