New York Times Delivers 1m Google Cardboard Viewers in VR Launch

nyt vr app google cardboard
The New York Times has stayed true to its announced commitment to strengthen its mobile offering by delivering over 1m Google Cardboard viewers to readers with its weekend edition, launching a new app in collaboration with the search giant to deliver virtual reality news.

NYT VR is a new project by the publisher that aims to deliver virtual reality content that immerses users in long-form reporting. The app debuted with a film called “The Displaced”, which told the story of three children made homeless by war and their resilience in the face of the global refugree crisis.

“Our readers look to The Times for innovative and powerful storytelling and this is The Times at its best,” said Dean Baquet, executive editor at The New York Times. “Our Magazine team has created the first critical, serious piece of journalism using virtual reality, to shed light on one of the most dire humanitarian crises of our lifetime.”

The app has been downloaded more times in its first four days of availability than any other app created by the New York Times, and viewers spent an average of almost 15 minutes engaging with the app, which is especially impressive given most peoples unfamiliarity with VR technology.

To support the production and distribution of the viewers and film, the app also delivered innovative advertising from sponsors GE and Mini. Mini delivered two short VR films which invited viewers to explore how new technologies are changing the way stories are told and how content is viewed.

For their advertising, GE produced a VR experience in conjunction with the Times in-house content marketing agency T Brand Studio that explored how industry and technology design work takes cues from nature.

“The great irony here is that it takes a print newspaper – a 164-year old business – and its still remarkable distribution system to deliver one of the most advanced digital storytelling technologies to more than a million people,” said Meredith Kopit Levien, executive vice president and chief revenue officer for The New York Times Company.

“We are inspired by how The New York Times Magazine team used virtual reality to tell this important story and thrilled that T Brand Studio is able to invest in these new technologies to provide these creative tools to marketers. We know our readers will be thoroughly entertained and engaged by the films produced by Mini and GE.”