Marc Frons
Encyclopedia
Marc Frons is the Chief Technology Officer of The New York Times
since July 2006. Since 2007, he has overseen technology and product development at NYTimes.com while continuing to be involved in broader digital strategy initiatives at the company. Before he joined The Times, Mr. Frons was the chief technology officer for The Wall Street Journal Online and other Dow Jones consumer Web sites. He is credited for the development of Map of the Market , an innovative financial data visualization interface for smartmoney.com and more recently the latest advancements in the customization algorithms that introduce readers to content based on their archived readings as well as the influx of interactivity within a media rich foundation of NYTimes.com.
in 1979, going on to hold a variety of senior editor positions at Business Week from 1984 until 1995. It was then that he started one of the first financial Web sites (SmartMoney.com), where he held the unusual title of editor and chief technology officer.
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The Map used a variant of the "treemap" technique pioneered by Ben Shneiderman. The screen is divided into rectangular tiles that represent publicly traded companies. The area of a rectangle corresponds to the market capitalization of the company, and the color tells you how the stock price has changed since the previous market close. Unlike a traditional treemap, however, the Map of the Market introduced a new algorithm designed to create tiles that were close to square, making for a display that is more legible and easier to interact with. (It turns out that several others, including Jarke van Wijk, independently invented similar algorithms around the same time.)
The Map of the Market quickly became one of the most trafficked sections of the site, and spawned many imitators. Today treemaps are a standard tool for visualizing financial data. This break-through data-visualization technology was a huge success and now is commonly seen as a way to view the performance of stocks, asset classes, sectors, or an entire country's stock market relative to its peers.
Smartmoney.com went on to win three awards in design innovation:
from 2003 until 2006 as vice president and chief technology officer for its Consumer Media Group, responsible for online product development and applications. Before that, he worked at AOL Time Warner from January 2002 to June 2003, first as vice president and general manager of AOL Personal Finance and then as consulting editor for CNN Money.
He helped to develop an innovative social and algorithmic recommendation framework that serves up recommended stories based upon the kinds of articles visitors have read, in hopes of "a more passive personalization...that exposes users to content they mat not have seen otherwise."
After completing the more personalized, engagement-oriented user experience, Mr. Frons oversaw the transition of adopting the paywall, and prefers to take an unbiased view on the matter. "Paywall or no paywall, our job, and the job of other news organizations, is to provide relevant news and information for our readers. To me, no matter what the model, the more people who read and are engaged with your website or your digital products, the better. So the recommendation engine just fits into our overall strategy of increasing user engagement.”
, president of ABC Daytime
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The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
since July 2006. Since 2007, he has overseen technology and product development at NYTimes.com while continuing to be involved in broader digital strategy initiatives at the company. Before he joined The Times, Mr. Frons was the chief technology officer for The Wall Street Journal Online and other Dow Jones consumer Web sites. He is credited for the development of Map of the Market , an innovative financial data visualization interface for smartmoney.com and more recently the latest advancements in the customization algorithms that introduce readers to content based on their archived readings as well as the influx of interactivity within a media rich foundation of NYTimes.com.
Education & Early-Mid Career
Mr. Frons started his career as a journalist while he pursued a B.A. degree in Psychology from the City University of New York, Brooklyn College in 1977, where he was campus correspondent for The New York Times. Upon graduation, he went on to be a stringer for The Times when he worked for a few months at a small paper in Rock Springs, Wyo. He began his career at NewsweekNewsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
in 1979, going on to hold a variety of senior editor positions at Business Week from 1984 until 1995. It was then that he started one of the first financial Web sites (SmartMoney.com), where he held the unusual title of editor and chief technology officer.
Smartmoney.com
From 1995 to early 2002, Mr. Frons was editor and chief technology officer of SmartMoney.com, one of the first financial periodical websites. In 1998, they launched The Map of The Market designed by Martin M. WattenbergMartin M. Wattenberg
Martin M. Wattenberg is an American scientist and artist known for his work with data visualization. Along with Fernanda Viégas, he worked at the Cambridge location of IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center as part of the Visual Communication Lab, and created Many Eyes...
.
The Map used a variant of the "treemap" technique pioneered by Ben Shneiderman. The screen is divided into rectangular tiles that represent publicly traded companies. The area of a rectangle corresponds to the market capitalization of the company, and the color tells you how the stock price has changed since the previous market close. Unlike a traditional treemap, however, the Map of the Market introduced a new algorithm designed to create tiles that were close to square, making for a display that is more legible and easier to interact with. (It turns out that several others, including Jarke van Wijk, independently invented similar algorithms around the same time.)
The Map of the Market quickly became one of the most trafficked sections of the site, and spawned many imitators. Today treemaps are a standard tool for visualizing financial data. This break-through data-visualization technology was a huge success and now is commonly seen as a way to view the performance of stocks, asset classes, sectors, or an entire country's stock market relative to its peers.
Smartmoney.com went on to win three awards in design innovation:
- American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) National Magazine Award for Best Interactive Design in 2001
- Online News Association Award in 2000 for Best Interactive Design
- Web Marketing Association Award for Best Investing Web Site in 1999
Dow Jones & AOL Time Warner
Mr. Frons worked at Dow Jones & CompanyDow Jones & Company
Dow Jones & Company is an American publishing and financial information firm.The company was founded in 1882 by three reporters: Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser. Like The New York Times and the Washington Post, the company was in recent years publicly traded but privately...
from 2003 until 2006 as vice president and chief technology officer for its Consumer Media Group, responsible for online product development and applications. Before that, he worked at AOL Time Warner from January 2002 to June 2003, first as vice president and general manager of AOL Personal Finance and then as consulting editor for CNN Money.
NYTimes.com
Mr. Frons was an integral part of the launch of Times Extra an alternative view of the home page featuring news headlines with links from third-party sources. Times Extra aggregates headlines from other news organizations and blogs across the Web, and matches the most relevant of those sources with lead articles on the NYTimes.com home page.He helped to develop an innovative social and algorithmic recommendation framework that serves up recommended stories based upon the kinds of articles visitors have read, in hopes of "a more passive personalization...that exposes users to content they mat not have seen otherwise."
After completing the more personalized, engagement-oriented user experience, Mr. Frons oversaw the transition of adopting the paywall, and prefers to take an unbiased view on the matter. "Paywall or no paywall, our job, and the job of other news organizations, is to provide relevant news and information for our readers. To me, no matter what the model, the more people who read and are engaged with your website or your digital products, the better. So the recommendation engine just fits into our overall strategy of increasing user engagement.”
Family & Personal Life
Mr. Frons lives in New York City with his wife, psychotherapist Merry Frons, and his dog, a vizsla named Jasper. He has two grownup daughters working in the internet and social media field and is cousin of Brian FronsBrian Frons
Brian Frons is an American television executive, and president of ABC Daytime.- Educational background :Frons holds a Master of Science degree in Communications from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the State University of New York at Fredonia.-Television...
, president of ABC Daytime
ABC Daytime
ABC Daytime is a programming block on the ABC Network which has historically encompassed soap operas, game shows and talk shows.-Schedule:...
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External links
- Innovation in Media: When Global Meets Digital
- Marc Frons talks New York Times and Apple iPad plus the introduction of paid news content.
- "You Are What You Read" Nieman Lab
- Interview with Marc Frons
- NYT CTO:Kindle Version Gaining 'Some' Traction; Taking Advantage of Mobile's Unique Aspects
- Will The Tablet Cure Newspapers' Ills?
- Keep Spreading The News
- Video Interview with Marc Frons with Stephen Hutcheon
- New York Times debuts aggregation homepage
See also
- Citizen JournalismCitizen journalismCitizen journalism is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal 2003 report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information...
- Democratic JournalismDemocratic journalismDemocratic journalism is a term describing a relatively new phenomenon where news stories are ranked by a vote among the stories' readers . This phenomenon has been brought about largely due to the creation of social networking sites such as Digg and Newsvine....
- Independent Media CenterIndependent Media CenterThe Independent Media Center is a global participatory network of journalists that report on political and social issues. It originated during the Seattle anti-WTO protests worldwide in 1999 and remains closely associated with the global justice movement, which criticizes neo-liberalism and its...
- Interactive journalismInteractive journalismInteractive journalism is a new type of journalism that allows consumers to directly contribute to the story. Through Web 2.0 technology, reporters can develop a conversation with the audience.The digital age has changed how people collect information...
- Media democracyMedia democracyMedia democracy is a set of ideas advocating reforming the mass media, strengthening public service broadcasting, and developing and participating in alternative media and citizen journalism. The stated purpose for doing so is to create a mass media system that informs and empowers all members of...
- New MediaNew mediaNew media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...