The Study On The Audience Development Of The New York Times

In recent years, the changes of social structure, the development of digital technology and the transformation of communication paradigm, have made the social media and the digital companies own the higher market share and more users than the New York Times and the other traditional media. Under this background, the traditional media have to seek effective strategies of transformation.As the digital media company,the New York Times has to focus on the audience development.To explore the audience development strategies of the New York Times and the practical paths of expanding the size of the paid subscribers,this paper uses the literature research method, the comparative research method, the observation method and the case study method.The reconstruction of the audience identity in the communication ecosystem, the lack of digital news culture and the changes of social structure in the U.S. have been resposible for the lack of audience.Facing the changed environment of information dissemination and the changed audience itself, the audience development strategies must keep pace with the times, even if the New York Times has been using various methods to consolidate the core audience in history.Nowadays, the New York Times audience development strategies should be in the base of cultivating the brand loyalty,increasing the audience’s social capital and connecting the audience.The New York Times has turned the social influence into the profitability by the means of the content products,the relation products and the sevice products.Firstly,the editorial department should adjust the organizational structure,establish the audience development team and hire the digital talents to make the "digital priority" and the "user thinking" become the dominant idea. The New York Times should operate the content profitably,produce the high-quality content and make the audience become the co-creators.Secondly,it’s good to operate the social media platform, establish the relationship with the young audience and turn the audience into the paid subscribers. Thirdly, the New York Times should become the audience’s diversified service providers and expand the international audience profitability.In short, the analysis of the audience development will lead to the more profound understanding of the connection between the media and the audience, which will be a useful reference to the traditional media.