New York Times and Google partner to offer immersive video headsets to subscribers
The Google Cardboard kits will turn smartphones into immersive video headsets that will deliver short films and documentaries that the NY Times has made.
The first film to come out of the project is “The Displaced”, about three children forced to flee their homes in South Sudan, eastern Ukraine and Syria. A second release is slated for later this year and will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the Walking New York cover story that the newspaper ran in April.
The NY Times magazine team developed the film with the help of virtual reality company Vrse. The films released for the headset will be delivered on the NYT VR app which was created by virtual reality studio IM360.
Subscribers to the NY Times premium “Insider” digital package and a selected number regular digital subscribers will be given promotional codes which will allow them to claim one of the Google Cardboard headsets.
Editor-in-chief of the New York Times magazine, Jake Silverstein, said the technology “gives the viewer a unique sense of empathic connection to people and events” and has a “huge potential” for journalism.
