TimeSpace - NYT Initiative
nytimes.comI find this interesting for several reasons:
1. They're not seeking equity. They're open to investing in a company, or becoming a customer. They say they're doing this as an experiment, and I believe them.
2. The NY Times is, I think, the most technology progressive entity of old media. I think their webpage is the best online newspaper (granted, that is America-centric). They consistently have excellent interactive visuals, their recent avalanche feature was amazing (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4950054), and their iPhone app is actually good.
3. Getting access to the experience and data at the NY Times could be enormously helpful for startups in media.
4. I actually pay for an NY Times subscription, so I'm hopeful that they'll end up doing something that will benefit them, and in turn, me as a reader.
Another technologically progressive entity I think is Al Jazeera English, especially their mobile app where you can watch the channel live and their nice integration with Youtube.
To say that the NYT is the most tech progressive media entity is understating it...besides their vast array of web and mobile apps and forays into new story telling methods (the Avalanche story was a hit here)...they've hired tech stars such as Jeremy Ashkenas (CoffeeScript/Bacbkone) and Mike Bostock (D3) whose work benefits the online ecosystem as a whole, not just the media world, and they pour a fair amount of resources into open source projects and news data APIs: http://open.blogs.nytimes.com/
Of course it's to be expected that they have one of the more prominent digital departments among media companies, given their size. But I think it's a fair to argue they've gone way beyond just trying to put out a decent digital media project, just as other notable digital companies innovate and produce and share beyond their core selling products.
This is great. We discussed this way back in 2009 and am extremely please to see something like this finally get going.
I would urge any new venture to give this serious consideration. The NYT isn't just a media company - they touch on a lot of different areas and there is a large range of business opportunities lurking under the hood.
For those in San Francisco, KQED is starting its own incubator for media start-ups: http://matter.vc/
I applied, because more than anything I need contacts that something like this can offer. That and a lot of the feedback on my start-up is that is great for News and media.
However, how many start-ups can really afford picking up and relocating to NY for a 4 month incubator without having funding (which SpaceTime does not appear to offer). I hope the selected start-ups are offered some kind of funding to cover relocation/living which can obviously be experience for 4 months in NY.
Update: I emailed timeSpace about the subject and the swiftly replied with the following:
" for this first iteration of timeSpace, we will not be offering funding. While that may unfortunately limit the pool of applicants, it is the most viable way to efficiently launch the program and get entrepreneurs on board as soon as possible. We will reevaluate for future iterations.
Very sorry that this poses a problem for teams based outside of NYC.
Best,
the timeSpace team"
There are, of course, a lot of startups already based in NYC- especially if you are media based, it pays to be here. I imagine this program is targeting them, rather than anyone further out.