NY Times Is Forcing Employees to View Website on Mobile

Apparently New York Times reporters need a little encouragement to view the paper’s website on mobile and tablet devices. On Friday, Clifford Levy, who serves as the “editorial lead” for the NYT Now app, shared this memo on Twitter from the Times’ management:

How important is mobile for @nytimes? We’re blocking access to our home page on desktop in our building. pic.twitter.com/AVu9RBm98F

— Clifford Levy (@cliffordlevy) June 12, 2015

Yes, in order to show how “important” mobile is to the future of The New York Times, on Monday the paper is blocking access to the desktop version of nytimes.com in attempt to force people to view it on their mobile devices.

Who are these Times employees who have never seen the mobile versions of the product they put out every day? And do they really need to be coerced into seeing the light?

The reactions from reporters at the Times and elsewhere have been mixed. Some think it’s a bold move to spur innovation:

This is actually brilliant. https://t.co/avBMvPJtNH

— Matthew J. Rosenberg (@MattJRosenberg) June 12, 2015

Bold. And actually pretty fucking genius. @NYTimes blocks access to desktop site internally, temporarily. https://t.co/xgcedPq4TW

— Christopher Phin (@chrisphin) June 12, 2015

Really smart idea by the @nytimes (via @liahaberman) https://t.co/fNuWodSI88

— Julia White (@Julia_White) June 12, 2015

Drastic but creative move to get journalists using mobile [disclaimer: typed via Tweetdeck desktop] https://t.co/pPb6YqZGWl

— Lia Haberman (@liahaberman) June 12, 2015

Very interesting idea https://t.co/zhf4aow84v

— Stuart Millar (@stuartmillar159) June 12, 2015

This is big. Reinforcing how big mobile is all around. https://t.co/vwBs8YLAlu

— Dhiya Kuriakose (@DhiyaKuriakose) June 12, 2015

Whoa! That's one way to get your newsroom to think mobile-first. Love it. https://t.co/CGFKa0Wtdu

— Katie Hawkins-Gaar (@katiehawk) June 12, 2015

While others are a bit more skeptical:

I mean, that's one way to send a message, @nytimes https://t.co/DFGNwsSzpC

— Ricardo Lopez (@rljourno) June 12, 2015

Self-censorship https://t.co/jC7ElExIeQ

— Jacob Lupfer (@jlupf) June 12, 2015

What's a desktop? https://t.co/2egBSXSmDh

— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) June 12, 2015

[Photo via NY Times]

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