Look for New York Times content to show up on screens in coffee shops and newstands in major cities nationwide because of a deal the paper is announcing with digital out-of-home company RMG Networks. Excerpts from NYT articles, along with video clips and photos, will soon fill 850 existing screens in San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles, which reach a staggering six million people a month. Users at the retail establishments where the screens are located will also be able to enter codes on their smartphones in order to download NYT content.
RMG Networks CEO Garry McGuire tells us that his company plans to double the size of the network within four months, which should make it the largest “place-based news network” in the U.S. by this summer.
Financial details are not being released, although McGuire says that RMG bears the cost of building out and maintaining the network. There will be two 30-second ads every four minutes, as well as promos for NYT subscriptions, on the screens.
McGuire says his company reached out to the NYT to get its content on its ‘Urban Mobile Network,’ which had previously featured a mix of content like YouTube clips, weather reports, and horoscopes.
“Our strategy for this network originally when it launched was to create our own custom content program from a lot of providers but what we found is that people in this environment really value short format news above all else,” he says.
RMG Networks, which was known until August as Danoo, has 60,000 screens in total. In addition to the renamed ‘NYTimes.com Today’ network, it owns a network aimed at business travelers as well as one located in health clubs.
McGuire says that RMG — which is backed by National CineMedia and VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers — is trying to build scale via acquisitions so that it can establish its networks as an alternative to TV advertising. The company picked up rival Ideacast last July — and McGuire says it will likely make six acquisitons this year. In fact, he says the company’s next deal should be announced this week.

{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2010\/03\/01\/419-new-york-times-partners-with-rmg-to-build-an-out-of-home-network\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_251d57a6fd030e21fe0fa4a45b911fab","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}