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May 21 2008 11:41AM EDT

On the Digification of 'The New York Times'

The New York Times is remaking itself as a digital enterprise, but don't expect it to start taking its cues from Gawker Media anytime soon when it comes to employee compensation.

"There's been a lot of talk recently about paying journalists by the page view, and I just think that's a ridiculous idea," said Aron Pilhofer, the Times's editor for interactive news, during a session this morning at the Mediabistro Circus. "I think we're a long way from reporters paying attention to page views."

Pilhofer and his boss, digital editor Jim Roberts, were there to discuss how the paper is using the Web to present the news in novel ways. Though both agreed that the future of the Times is online, Roberts said the print edition is far from extinction. "The New York Times is not going to be obsolete in print for a long time," he said, noting that greater than 80 percent of its revenues are still from print. "So whatever it takes to keep breathing life into it, we're going to do.

"We are blessed, in a sense, because in Manhattan there are people who will not give up their papers. It's like the Charlton Heston quote -- we'll have to pry it from their cold, dead fingers."

Other highlights:

-Roberts on the day Apple took over the nytimes.com homepage for its "Mac vs. PC" campaign: "There were definitely people in the newsroom who were aghast. I don't think anyone went so far as to say we sold our soul. I kind of expected to see more negative reader response than we did. There was no flood of angry letters. That actually bothered me a little bit. I guess I'd hoped it might bother people more."

-Roberts on what forms of online ads he considers effective: "This probably should be off the record, but I know it's not. I can't imagine why any advertiser would want to buy an interstitial. But they do, and we need the money."

-Roberts on TimesSelect, the now-defunct premium-content program: "It wasn't a failure per se. We got quite a bit of income from it...but it got to a ceiling."

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