How the NYT is building a modern technology stack to support every part of its media business

If all companies have become technology companies, the New York Times is a good example. Although it started as a print newspaper 171 years ago, the same company in 1851 is now a heavily technology-oriented media company.

While the transition has been happening to some extent for decades, the NYT has brought on Jason Sobel as CTO in the summer of 2021 to accelerate its transformation into a modern technology organization.

Sobel brings 15 years of pure engineering experience, including long stints at Airbnb and Facebook, where he helped lead the infrastructure. The Times hired an engineer with that kind of experience precisely because it needed someone who could build the same kind of technology that the biggest tech companies were building.

In fact, Sobel said he found that the technical side of things isn’t much different from his previous experience, except that everything he does serves the publishing business.

“So it’s nice, it’s not that different. I mean, the wording makes a difference in a way. Obviously there’s a strong editorial voice that will always be important with the kind of content we write and how we deliver it,” Sobel told TechCrunch.

But when it comes to building a technology organization, Sobel says what builds the registration document sounds pretty familiar. “We have a cross-functional team of designers, engineers and product managers who work together to deliver websites, applications and back-end technology. So I was surprised how similar it is,” he said.