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Martin Nisenholtz Eyes the Digital Landscape from Atop the New York Times

Written on
Jan 23, 2006 
Author
Kiran Aditham  |
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Martin Nisenholtz Eyes the Digital Landscape from Atop the New York Times

While Teletext never truly took off in the US, Nisenholtz was nevertheless spared any occasion to look back at his abandoned PhD with much regret. After a few years spent working as a professor’s assistant and research scientist in the Teletext labs, the interactive seeds had been planted firmly enough in Nisenholtz’s soul to inspire him to take on a new venture—in a totally new medium.

“I created the first interactive advertising agency in 1983 at Ogilvy and Mather,” Nisenholtz explains. “So I went from New York University into advertising.” Despite the size of that accomplishment (huge), and the complexities inherent in learning to navigate a new field of play (many), Nisenholtz downplays the remarkable nature of this achievement by describing the process in terms of similarities rather than differences. “It was really not so much advertising as it was just interactive communication,” he says. “We were taking on clients who were interested in the interactive world, built that business up as a Videotex business, and then transitioned it to the PC in the mid-80s.”

That transition made Nisenholtz and O&M not only first to the game, but also, arguably, the biggest and best players on the field. “I was at Ogilvy and Mather for 11 years,” Nisenholtz points out, “and when I left [in 1994], we had the largest interactive agency in the country.”

Now the Senior VP of Digital Operations at The New York Times Company, where he has made his professional home for the past ten years, Nisenholtz heads the online operations of arguably the largest, most reputable daily trade in the world. His responsibilities include oversight of NYTimes.com, Boston.com and, as a result of a headline-making acquisition last February, About.com.

The Times’ purchase of About was viewed as a major step in the direction of the future for traditional newspapers: a journalistic powerhouse was now joining forces with a well-known online content provider. And, as expected, Nisenholtz claims the union’s been nothing short of blissful thus far. “First of all, it provides us with a huge new audience to monetize,” the forward thinking chief reports. “About.com has the largest audience out of any of our properties by a large margin. It’s a top-ten website. Secondly, as a result of having that audience, it gives us half-a-billion more page views each month to put into the [New York Times] network.”

It’s not only traffic that’s been positively affected by the addition of About.com; Nisenholtz says advertising and search have been streamlined as well. “We had a very small CPC line prior to buying About.com, and now we have a much more substantial one, which gives us more diversity as well. It’s given us all those things, plus a real expertise in search optimization. A whole lot of benefits have come with the acquisition.”

While About.com gives a sizeable uplift to the New York Times online network, Nisenholtz isn’t resting on any laurels. Instead he’s busy attempting to spread their reach even further, particularly by way of new features like the much hyped Times Select. Select, which is a premium tier of NYTimes.com, gives readers access to editorial archives and 22 columnists that are no longer included on the free site, for a fee of $49.95 per year (or $7.95 per month).

It’s a bold move, but not one that all Times devotees are in favor of. Defending the company’s turn to paid content—which has been the topic of great debate on the web (not all of it positive)—Nisenholtz assures us that the outcry is misplaced. “97% of the Times website remains free after the launch of Times Select,” he says. “The Times is not putting its website into a pay window. It simply created a tier on top of the free site, and it is a way for us to package more stuff for subscribers to The New York Times.”





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