The New Yorker's Virtual Reality Film Is Driving Subscriptions

On March 19, Condé Nast title The New Yorker released its first virtual reality film, Reeducated, a 20-minute illustrated spot on Chinese detention camps. And it's already making an impact on subscription and traffic numbers. “The landing page alone for the film on our site has twice as many page views and contributed 16 times the number of subscriptions than median video posts on our site,” Monica Racic, digital director of The New Yorker, told Adweek. The interactive animation and the written feature that accompanies the film is also driving subscriber growth, said Racic. The interactive story drove about two and a half times as many page views and 10 times the number of subscriptions as other news articles averaged in the last year. The publisher wouldn't share specific numbers. Publishers have been dabbling in virtual reality production for several years. The New York Times, The Economist and The Guardian experimented in VR, but expensive shoots, original concepts and audiences never fully running with the tech meant that most films were shot in collaboration with or funded by brands and tech firms. Few have been able to tie VR to growing subscriptions, which would make the venture more self-sustaining. Beyond the bounds of traditional video The New Yorker said the film’s subject matter—detention camps in China's Xinjiang region—was its motivation to try virtual reality. “VR allowed us to go beyond the bounds of traditional photography and video, especially because it's illustrated, which is kind of rare," said Racic. "You can really have a sense of the feelings of being within that space.” The film follows three men previously detained in one of the Uighur minority camps. To make the film, a journalist, the film’s director, and an illustrator traveled to Kazakhstan in December 2019 to meet with the former detainees, who were all at the same detention camp at the same time. “It's very rare to have corroborated eyewitness accounts from within camps, and rarer still to hear multiple former detainees describe overlapping experiences,” said Soo-Jeong Kang, executive producer of video at The New Yorker. A huge undertaking The New Yorker has previously worked in extended reality, releasing 360-degree cover artwork as well as two augmented reality projects. This was its first foray into VR, and it was a big job, said Kang. “Producing a VR film is a huge undertaking," said Kang. "It's a decision that has to be made in collaboration with the rest of the departments at the magazine.” While The New Yorker staff wouldn't say how much the film cost to make, its partnerships with the Pulitzer Center, the Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism and the Online News Association made the movie financially possible. The director of the film, Sam Wolson, had previously made a hit VR documentary for The New York Times entitled We Who Remain, which captured the realities of war in Sudan. It was Wolson, along with reporter Ben Mauk, who pitched the concept of Reeducated to the New Yorker, Racic said. Racic said that no other virtual reality projects are currently in the works due to the cost and work involved. But they're not giving up on the format. “The story has to be something that will benefit from the experiential nature of VR," Kang said. "It's about an adding of value for the viewers, and putting the audience inside the story felt like something that would drive home the power of the trauma." read more: Here’s What the VR Experience at SXSW Looks Like