The New York Times is embracing "a new way to tell stories" in the form of virtual reality (VR). The 164-year-old newspaper this weekend introduced a VR mobile app and distributed free Google Cardboard VR viewers to US subscribers to the newspaper's Sunday edition.
Online subscribers who elected to receive marketing e-mails were e-mailed promotional codes that could be redeemed for free Google Cardboard sets.
Google Cardboard is a pair of cardboard VR goggles into which the user's smartphone can be slotted to create a simple, low-cost VR experience.
The NYT VR app, which is free to download on Android and iOS devices, offers video journalism filmed - using several cameras clustered together at different angles to capture a 360-degree environment - and produced for an immersive VR experience.
Users who do not have Google Cardboard can select the app's "smartphone" option to view the films on their smartphone screens.
'Feeling of connection'
NYT VR comes equipped with a number of VR films, most notably "The Displaced", which tells the stories of three children driven from their homes by war and persecution.
"This new filmmaking technology enables an uncanny feeling of connection with people whose lives are far from our own," says Jake Silverstein, editor in chief of the New York Times Magazine.
"The Displaced" aims to use the VR medium to visually immerse viewers in the worlds of 9-year-old Chuol from South Sudan, 11-year-old Oleg from eastern Ukraine, and 12-year-old Hana, a Syrian refugee.
Ease of uptake
The New York Times is not the only publication looking to VR for new ways to tell stories: the Associated Press announced on Thursday that it is working on a series of VR stories to be released over the next few months.
Yet the Times' method of VR delivery could see a milestone in the technology's uptake, writes Bryan Lufkin for Gizmodo. "It's not asking readers to buy additional, pricy peripherals like an Oculus Rift to enjoy virtual reality. It's asking them to use smartphones they probably already have and stick them in cheap VR tools that're being mailed to some subscribers for free."