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The New York Times has gone through many challenges and evolutions during its storied history. Founded in 1851—when it was called the New-York Daily Times—it faced draft riots during the Civil War, received the first telegraph transmission from a naval battle in 1904, and was involved in libel suits in the 1960’s that helped establish freedom of the press through the US Supreme Court
But it’s within the past 25 years or so that the “Newspaper of Record” has undergone some of its most radical transformations: shifting much of its focus away from the printed page to the web and app ecosystem, and expanding into food with NYT Cooking, consumer product reviews with The Wirecutter, and podcasts with The Daily.
Today we chat with Georg Petschnigg, SVP of Product Design at the New York Times, about what it takes to balance the tension between the rich legacy of the Times with the rapidly evolving digital landscape. We also talk about designing across products and platforms for a more unified experience, creating a tight coupling between design and engineering, and what the future holds for news products in a world where AI and ML can facilitate content creation but also manufacture deception.
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BioGeorg Petschnigg is an executive, entrepreneur, and product leader. He feels most comfortable at the intersection of design, technology, and business. He currently serves as Head of Product Design at The New York Times.
Throughout his career, he’s created products that changed how people work, create, and see the world. He believes technology needs to serve the human need to create.
Georg co-founded FiftyThree in 2011 and served as CEO until WeTransfer’s acquisition in 2018. FiftyThree are the makers of Paper®, the fast and beautiful productivity app for getting ideas down, Paste® the fastest way for teams to share and gather around their ideas, and Pencil, the award-winning stylus. Internationally recognized for design excellence and innovation, they’ve received awards from Apple, IDSA, Communication Arts, and IxDA. FiftyThree’s products reach more than 30 Million creative thinkers worldwide and defined mobile creativity.
Before starting FiftyThree, he co-founded the Pioneer Studios, a design venture fund, where he led the incubation of new mobile devices such as the foldable tablet Courier, digital magazines and television services. He shipped graphic tools in PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and started a photo frame business with Samsung. While at Microsoft Research he published seminal work on computational photography. He was part of the first launch of a web-based version of Office, and the digital TV standard HDTV.
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Georg Petschnigg on Design Matters by Debbie Millman
Bonus: AI and the Creative Process
Ben Clymer: Hodinkee founder on watch design and creating a compelling content brand
Natsai Audrey Chieza: Designing with biology
Pablo Stanley: A creative force of nature on the importance persistence and hustle
Tasha Golden: Avoiding burnout while pursuing creativity with passion
Jonathan Adler: Famed potter and designer on bringing creativity into all aspects of life
Making Design Better—better—with weekly episodes, an enhanced newsletter, and more
Brian Tyler, composer for Yellowstone, Crazy Rich Asians, Mario Brothers, and more, on his creative process
Bonus: Eric Snowden, Head of Adobe Design, on AI + Design
Kate Aronowitz: Shaping the story of design in business
Ellen Lupton: Thinking With Type
Jonathan Hoefler: Typography legend on type history, philosophy, and entrepreneurship
Bonus: Hamish Smyth of Standards
Bonus: Hiroki Asai, Global Head of Marketing at Airbnb
Vanessa Gennarelli: Surviving Change at Work
Scott Rice: Creative lessons learned teaching film with Matthew McConaughey
Autumn Durald Arkapaw: Cinematographer for Wakanda Forever and Loki on the overlap between design and photography
Rewind: Midcentury modern design principles and Heath Ceramics
Barry Katz: The history and philosophy of design in Silicon Valley and beyond
Bonus Episode: Dorrian Porter, CEO of Vestaboard
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