Both are great American newspapers, both suffer from the advertising slump and from the transition to digital. But the NYT's paywall strategy is making a huge difference
The iconic newspaper has been slow to adapt to the digital era. Its transformation really started around 2008. Since then, it has checked all the required boxes: integration of print and digital productions; editors are now involved on both sides of the news production and all relentlessly push the newsroom to write more for the digital version; many blogs covering a wide array of topics have been launched; and the Post now has a good mobile application.
The "quant" culture also set in, with editors now taking into account all the usual metrics and ratios associated with digital operations, including a live update of Google's most relevant keywords prominently displayed in the newsroom. All this helped the Post collect 25.6 million unique visitors per month, v 4 to 5 million for Politico, and 35 million for the New York Times that historically enjoys a more global audience.
