The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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By Noel Young, Correspondent

February 24, 2013 | 3 min read

If you’re wondering what ex-BBC chief Mark Thompson is up to in his new role as CEO of the New York Times , open up your iPad, laptop or smartphone at midnight UK time tonight and head to www.nytimes.com/oscars.

There you will see evidence of the Times commitment to the world of supplementary video.

Specifically, you can see ex-DG Thompson serving pizza to New York Times media columnist David Carr and Times chief film critic A.O. Scott.

The two will be talking about the Oscar festivities while playing with a remote control helicopter, Ad Age reports.

"My only worry is that it's like three hours, and I don't want to be the first hot mic disaster at the Times," Carr said. "I don't know if I've ever made it three hours in my life without cussing."

The Times, in general- is not looking to develop an alternative viewing experience to ABC's broadcast, says the mag.

Instead the paper is offering supplementary coverage that will include live video from the Times office, red carpet photos, curated tweets and a live blog - and of course pizza.

Tiffany & Co. and Chobani are the two sponsors for the Times's multimedia Oscars coverage.

Julie Bloom, an editor on the Times's culture desk, led the Oscar dashboard project, AdAge reports, and said that visitors will be able to open and close certain feeds depending on what coverage they desire.

Visitors who have filled out Oscar ballots on the Times website will see their results updated in real-time, with the top scorer winning an iPad.

The remote control helicopter- is a nod to the Best Picture nominated "Zero Dark Thirty". The two talkers will also wearing Abraham Lincoln beards.

The Times has invested heavily in online video, but this and recent staffing changes suggest the media giant is doubling down on that bet, says AdAge.

The pizza delivery is a gentle joke but it a clue to the importance that Mark Thompson attaches to video in the NYT's future. .

This month , the Times hired Rebecca Howard away from The Huffington Post where she was head of video development.

The Times won’t say if it will launch a daily video news channel like HuffPost Live. But Carr thinks such a channel is not that far off.

"As a media reporter, I think it's inevitable that we're going to end up in a real-time way in the video business," he said.

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