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3-Minute Briefing: David Perpich (MBA 2007)
Topics: Information-Information PublishingCommunication-MediaSports-General
3-Minute Briefing: David Perpich (MBA 2007)
Topics: Information-Information PublishingCommunication-MediaSports-General
3-Minute Briefing: David Perpich (MBA 2007)
Team player: Moving the ball forward on a goal of 15 million subscribers by 2027. (Photo by Benjamin Norman)
I interned at a lot of different places in high school and college—a hospital, a retail store, a magazine, an ad agency. At Duke, I was part owner of a student-run food-delivery service.
In Clay Christensen–speak, it was the “emergent strategy,” exploring as I went and recalibrating. I realized I loved entrepreneurial ventures and media. After college I cofounded a training school and booking business for DJs called Scratch Music.
At HBS, I did a field study with five other people about happiness. The basic takeaway was that when you’re doing what you want to be doing, your actions and values are most aligned. For me, that means working with talented people on a challenge that serves a higher purpose.
When I joined the Times in 2010, there were no digital subscriptions, so creating that concept and product was my initial focus 100 percent of the time. In March 2011 we launched the paywall.
It’s worth mentioning that when we started, some of the research indicated we’d be lucky to get to 700,000 subscribers. A lot has changed since then. Today we’re at roughly 10 million subscribers with the goal of reaching 15 million by 2027.
The Athletic is part of that package. It’s your personalized sports page, with the best reporting and analysis from 450 journalists about the teams and players you care about and the biggest and most compelling stories in sports.
I’m a Washington Commanders fan, but I also love Duke basketball and find college football fascinating. I also have two young kids who are really into the New York Knicks. It’s so fun to watch their awareness grow, so that’s made me a fan, too.
I also helped launch NYT Cooking and NYT Games and helped grow Wirecutter, our product review site. There’s a real thrill in imagining and building something that is not yet being done. Plus, it’s so much fun to work on consumer-facing products that you love to use yourself.
The throughline is human-powered reporting and content creation of the highest value, whether it’s a recipe or a crossword or reporting on the presidential election.
Day to day, I listen to challenges on the ground and communicate openly about our vision and strategy. It doesn’t sound sexy, but it’s a lot of meetings and one-on-one conversations. The value we can create to help propel an institution like the Times is what gets me out of bed every morning.
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