Million digital only subscribers. 1 million only digital subscribers. As it goes forward the times has a new form of story telling. Its latest project is a 10minute Virtual Reality film that tells the story of children displaced by war. This weekend more than a million subscribers received google Virtual Reality viewers. I am pleased to have you at this table for the first time. Welcome. It is a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much. Charlie what is Virtual Reality film . For me it is a different way of telling a story. It is a dramatic visual form of story telling that makes you feel as if youre in the middle of the field. In the case of these three Migrant Children it makes you feel like youre walking among them, like you could actually reach out and touch them. Charlie it puts you there. It puts you there. It is a powerful piece of journalism and a great new story telling device. Charlie how will you use it . You know, you can use it all kinds of ways. We have used it before though not as widely just showing people a sort of immigrants walk through new york. You could do it for light stuff. In this case we wanted to do it for what i think is one of the most powerful stories in the world, which is the way war has displaced children in particular all around the world. This is told in the eyes of these children and you see the world through their eyes. As beautifully as the story could be written, i dont think you could tell it quite the way. Charlie it adds to the experience of story telling. It does. Its a new way to tell stories. Charlie war has driven 30 million children from their homes. These are the stories of three of them. Now, this was shipped to what, a Million People . A Million People all home subscribers around the country got it. Charlie in the u. S. Yes. Charlie now on this iphone which doesnt belong to me, but it had the New York Times app, correct . Thats right. Charlie and you have that app, it gives you access to the New York Times. Thats right. Charlie im going to push that now. And im going to fold this like this. And then ill join you. Now were starting. This is a food drop in south sudan. Charlie right. Now youve been following the story. Charlie my goodness. Wow. Its amazing. Youve been following the story of this one child. Charlie yeah. And as i turn its like im in the middle of a field and im turning around and i see the man with the bull horn. This 9yearold child has been telling you what his life is like as a refugee. Charlie in this remote camp in the swamps of south sudan one of the only ways to deliver large amounts of humanitarian aid is by air. And theyre waiting. Theres the plane. Theyve been waiting for the plane. Charlie wow. This is extraordinary. It is so powerful. Now watch as they rush to pick up the bags. Charlie yes. Its like im in the center of everything and i can just turn and see everything. You parachuted me down. There are the bags. And there these kids are, all of them, there is one bag so heavy that charlie wow. The kid needs help. Charlie yeah. Its heart breaking. Charlie and these are bags of humanitarian aid. Yes. Food. Charlie so this is available today . Or when will this be well, hopefully everybody will keep their glasses and well do more. We have more in the works. The reason we chose this one, when we first started im going to name the two editors who were the leaders on this, Jake Silverstein is the editor of the magazine and sam dolnik at the time, this was their baby. My job was to sort of get the heck out of the way. And they wanted a subject that would make it so that people could say, would not say, well this is an interesting gimmick. So they wanted a subject that as powerful, journalistic, and timely. If it had been just a mere feature story or something where people could feel like theyre just walking through a park everybody would have said it was a gimmick. In this case it is obviously journalism and obviously powerful. Charlie google is your partner in this . Thats right. Charlie what do they provide . The glasses. And the remarkable thing if you 10 years from now when Virtual Reality is a part of life or sooner than that, everybody will think of this remarkable moment when a bunch of people paut Cardboard Box in a bag and delivered it at homes all around the country and theyll think it was such a rudimentary way to do it but it was really a remarkable feat to pull it off. And in my humble opinion a great moment for the New York Times in pushing ahead with a different kind of story telling. Charlie did you have to learn digital . Yes. Charlie or was it something you just naturally included in your tools . No, no. I started as a journalist at 19. I dropped out of college. I got a job with the afternoon paper in new orleans. I did cops, courts, city hall, investigative reporting, the whole nine yards. This is new for me. On the other hand, the bedrock of it is what i grew utch doing. Its story telling. Its being honorable. Its being truthful. Its trying to convey news to people in a straight forward way. Its news judgment. Charlie it can add to journalism the same way the internet did. Journalism is better now just for the record. Journalistic institutions are working and struggling but journalism, itself, is better now than its ever been. The fact, it wasnt that long ago that you would not have even been able to see any video at all in south sudan. To be able to see it as a Virtual Reality tool, its remarkable. Journalism is greater now than its ever been. Charlie the quality of writing better than its ever been . Is the quality of story telling better than its ever been . Absolutely. Charlie why do you think that is . I think first off we have to work harder. I think 25 years ago if you were a the New York Times or the Washington Post you had a built in audience. We sometimes took our readers for granted. Charlie cbs news as well . Thats right. Now we have to work for them every day. We have to work harder for them. So story telling i think is better. Now, the big institutions that tell stories the best i would argue like the New York Times, like cbs news, like the Washington Post, are going to have to fight hard to survive. But story telling, itself, journalism, is better than it ever was. I think sometimes we make the mistake of worrying over our institutions and not worrying enough about actual journalism, itself. Journalism is thriving. Charlie all right. Tell me what your role is as executive editor. If things go well, i get responsibility for them. If things dont go well, i pick somebody else. I mean, i run the [laughter] i run the news report of the times so i come in every morning worrying over what the New York Times is going to cover. Im responsible for everything except the opinion pages. Charlie you report to the publisher. They report to the publisher. Yes. I do as well. Charlie you do as well but the opinion people only report to the publisher. Right. But i only report to the publisher too. Charlie who else would there be to report to . Thats true. As the c. E. O. , Mark Thompson runs the whole business side of the operation. Charlie how big church and street, the separation between business and journalism, church and state, you have said some things that indicate you think there is a need for more cooperation absolutely i do. Charlie with maintaining church and state. Yeah. Charlie explain that. Well, first off, church and state, pure church and state existed in a world in which there was a newsroom and there was advertising. There was no technology. The people who helped create this product, this whole world of journalists didnt exist 25 years ago. Those people, the people who sort of plan what the New York Times looks like online and on the phone, those people for my money are as beholden to me as they are to the person who runs the business side. Thats the first thing. The second thing is we are in a tumultuous, difficult time. And the most creative people in any News Organization happen to live in newsrooms. It would be nuts if those people were not involved in charting the future of the New York Times or the Washington Post. It would be nuts, this, which i hope one day will not only become a great way to tell stories, this is also hopefully a way to make money. Charlie right. It was born in the newsroom. It was created by two senior editors who fought and pushed for it. And i have to create a situation in the New York Times newsroom where journalists feel compelled to not only tell Great Stories but think about their impact on the future of the New York Times. I think i can do that. I think we can do that. Without jeopardizing our integrity. Charlie your integrity is jeopardized when . Your integrity is jeopardized when people think that advertisers or powerful interests influence your news. And influence the way you cover the news. And that aint going to happen. Charlie not as long as youre there. Nope. Nope. Nor as long as arthur is there. Charlie okay. Fair enough. And hes been here many times as you know. Yes. Charlie when you were at the l. A. Times just to take a measure of you, they told you to cut the staff. Right. Charlie you said, no, im not going to do that. Thats right. They fired me. Charlie and they fired you. Right. Charlie you said you werent going to do it as i understand it because it would go to the heart of producing a quality. Thats right. The only times when i became managing editor and when i became editor was one of the greatest News Organizations in the world, it still is, but to be frank i thought that people who owned the l. A. Times were not thinking about the impact the cuts would have. We were facing the possibility of closing foreign bureaus. We were facing the possibility of cutting the news report we gave to people in los angeles. I think we were creating the situation where we would jeopardize the business. To be perfectly frank, i dont mind saying this, i didnt quite trust the people who owned the l. A. Times to understand what i was trying to say. And i think they were severely weakening the paper. As a Journalistic Institution and as a business. I think i was right. Charlie when you quit, did you have any idea what your future was . None. I was fired first. Charlie i mean fired, right. None. I went home. I was a little bit freaked out. I sort of had hoped it wouldnt come to that point. Charlie freaked out because . Because charlie because you believed in the paper and believed it could do . I believed and i still believe that a great News Organization can survive and thrive. And it broke my heart that the l. A. Times was being cut to the point where i didnt think it could be as great as it was. Charlie did they hear you say that . You know, i dont think they did, to be honest. I dont think they did. I mean, as evidence of the fact, when my fights with them started, the guy who was the publisher, jeff johnson, actually sided with me. And this is the guy worrying over the finances of the l. A. Times. He sided with me and he was also pushed out. So it wasnt just me. Charlie who was doing the pushing . It was Tribune Company which was based in chicago. Charlie from the chicago tribune. Yes. I think we just live in different planets. So, no. I was freaked out. I spent a month reading philip roth. Charlie what were you reading . I read, i set as a goal, i had to read all of philip roths novels and i came close in the course of a month. Charlie why did you choose philip roth . A Great American novelist a Great American novelist who has written nothing about los angeles. Charlie exactly. I just wanted to go back to school. So i wanted to pick one writer and just read all the work. Im an english major and ive always read a lot of fiction. I spent time with my son and my wife who writes fiction. And then one day arthur called. Actually arthur called the day after i was fired. He asked if i would consider coming back. I told him i just needed some time. Actually what i was secretly hoping was that the l. A. Times would be sold and then i would go back but that didnt happen. Charlie you loved the idea of running a great newspaper. Yes. Charlie so arthur calls you and you end up as the Washington Bureau chief. Yes. Which was a blast. Actually in a paper the size of the New York Times its the closest thing to being a city editor. You walk into that room with 50 reporters. You have a piece of every story. It was the waning days of the Bush Administration. The big fights over torture were starting to yee rument. It was presnowden but it was just before wikileaks. I was involved in wikileaks. It was a blast. You walked in and you had command of this room and you had the white house and you had National Security. You had, you know, fierce debates over the wars in afghanistan and iraq. It was just a blast. Charlie in the south we have an expression for that. Im a southerner, too. Ive heard that. But you cant say it. Charlie no we cant. An he point is here, also Investigative Reporter. Thats what you love. Thats what i was. Charlie what is it about investigative reporting that you love i was an Investigative Reporter in new orleans and chicago and for the New York Times before i became an editor. First off, its hard. Its really hard. I think that my history and my background makes me skeptical of powerful institutions even though i run one now. Charlie yes. And investigative reporting lets you look hard at powerful institutions. In a lot of ways, i dont want to say it is the highest form of journalism because thats not true. There are many high forms of journalism. But it is a high form of journalism. Its tough. And its fun. Its exciting. Its really hard. Its mentally challenging. Its, i mean, its exciting. I started doing it in louisiana which is a great place to be an Investigative Reporter. Charlie do you love politics . I do love politics. I do. I like politics a lot. I like different forms. I like a horse race. But i also like the sort of substantive stuff and i like understanding who the candidates are. Yes. I do. A lot. Just remember i want i always tell the story because i want it to be my obituary i am the reporter who got the quoteation from Edwin Edwards when he was running for governor of louisiana. Charlie tell the story. Its a great story. I was covering Edwin Edwards campaign from the back of the bus for the Times Picayune. It is just the two of us. I say, governor, will you lose this election . He said dean the only way i lose the election is if im caught in bed with a dead girl and live book. Once he saw the effect he kept saying it every day after that. I got it first. Charlie what is he doing now . He ran for congress and lost and hes sort of a political figure in louisiana. He just got out of jail. Charlie youre there at the New York Times as Washington Bureau chief. Then you come to new york. Yeah. Came to new york as managing editor. Was brought in by Jill Abramson who was a friend and also executive editor. Charlie still a friend . Weve lost touch. I still care for her a lot, like her a lot. I was obviously we had a disagreement that became public which is unfortunate. But i still care for her a lot. Charlie the disagreement was about . We had, im going to be coy if you dont mind. We had different philosophies about how to lead the newsroom. Charlie so management style. Yes. It was management style. Our styles are different. Charlie and the publisher decided it was time for a change. Yes. Thats right. Thats right. Thats about a year and a half ago. Charlie so whats your goal ased itor in chief of the New York Times . My big goal, my first goal is to make the New York Times better. I mean, i think every executive editor of a big News Organization wants to make it better. I want to make it in particular a great, investigative institution. I care deeply about investigative reporting and its something ive made a priority. I would love to leave a News Organization thats on sound enough financial footing so that my successors can keep building the way previous executive editors have been able to build. Good, e to leave it in a safe place where it can thrive. Charlie what do you have to do . I think significantly increase the number of people who read us and pay for us. As you said in the beginning we have a million paid subscribers. All together we have 2 million subscribers if you count print. I think we have to significantly increase that. We have said, Mark Thompson the c. E. O. And i, have said that we need to increase our digital revenue from about 400 million to 1800 million. Charlie by 2020. So uff a goat four years to go from 400 to 800. We got to the 400 in about four years so i think we can do it. Thats going to mean getting a lot more people to read the New York Times and to pay for it. I actually think we can do that. I think there is a bigger International Audience for us. I think about 15