The New York Times has announced that it will partner with video production website Xtranormal for a new interactive comic strip. The NYT will use the Xtranormal platform to give new legs to their satirical, finance-oriented comics, with the hope of developing the political cartoon into new media.
The new venture will be headed up by former Wall Street trader, Omid Malekan, whose Xtranormal-produced video, "Quantitative Easing Explained," went viral with more than 4 million views on Youtube. Malekan has held many different occupations within the financial industry, but is excited for this new venture. Malekan said in a statement, ”Political cartoons and comic strips have always had an important place in traditional media, because they can say so much by depicting so little."
While many would associate the Xtranormal platform with their ads for Geico, Graham Sharp, CEO of Xtranormal, sees the platform serving a greater purpose:
“For years, cartoons have been an important feature of newspapers and magazines; our platform brings them to life and makes them even more engaging and fun on the web,” he went on to say, “The New York Times is clearly an innovator in the online world, and by producing a weekly satirical cartoon in this new way, it is using the latest technology to continue to differentiate itself from the rest.”
You can view the first videotorial, "I.P.O. Blues," featuring Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffet, on their website here.