A recent article in Business 2.0 magazine is a good place to start a conversation about the viability and sustainability of the 20th century business model for news publishing. In the section "What's Next/Who's Next," the article by John Heileman discusses the source of surging new revenues at the New York Times. The architect of the Times' most important new experiment in protecting and building its brand is Martin Nisenholtz, and the turning point for Nisenholtz was an executive committee meeting in 2005 that created a strategy that said "we're in the business of convening communities here; we're not just in the business of pushing information at people."

Nesenholtz is a new media veteran, formerly from Ameritech, who has pushed against all the natural resistance to change that an organization like the New York Times can generate. But the numbers have not been good on the print side (the paper recently "downsized" by cutting its production workforce by a third, and physically shrinking the paper by 1.5 inches.

But on the Times Select side, revenues have been boosted by $17 million, up from $49 million to $66 million. And this is just the beginning as the Times' recent purchase of About.com indicates. Cultural changes will soon involve more blogs, podcasts, and multi-media content. The redesign of the Times' website is another indication of change that makes the Times arguably the most Web-savvy newspaper in America.

I'm interested in your reaction to this article. Can the Times meet the challenges facing today's print media? When will the Times cease to be a print media icon and become a new media icon?