By: Elaine Chan, Center Spread Editor
In 2024, modern newspapers must come up with new and accessible ways to stay relevant in this quickly evolving digital world, so it seems that every morning, our daily routines consist of waking up, eating breakfast – and opening up the satisfying game of Wordle and Connections. The New York Times has not only been supplying us consumers with only the highest quality news articles and artistic editorials, but they have also been providing us with entertaining and convenient mini games every morning. It all began within The New York Times office building in 1942 when Charles Erlenkotter made history as he constructed the very first crossword puzzle. Following his invention, “the Crossword” was published in the newest Sunday Magazine of The New York Times. At the time of the game’s release, America was in the midst of the Second World War and the publication explained that these seemingly simple games were ways to take the stress off and simply focus on “4 down 6 across”. The crossword puzzle quickly became a permanent resident inside the pages of the morning paper, and the editors were thrilled to see that this game had the potential to grow into an entire empire of New York Times games.
Come 2014, The New York Times made an even more accessible version of their iconic game with the launch of the Mini Crossword. Now digital and miniature, players can enjoy a 5×5 square with niche and brief hints. These bite-sized games only grew more popular as the NYT Games section added the Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiles, and Vertex to the roster. The Spelling Bee gets players’ minds going as they attempt to create as many words as possible with only 7 letters, while a more visual game like Vertex aims to create a beautiful picture in the end. These little pockets of entertainment are crafted daily by hundreds of game makers at The New York Times and one of the Vertex game makers, Noca Wu attended the New York University’s Game Center. There, she heard discussions about a new NYT Game: Vertex, and later in 2019 she helped publish the very first Vertex puzzle. She is one of the many game designers who are hard at work supplying the seemingly bottomless pit of new puzzles, words, and images.
The New York Times has been the top newspaper and magazine outlet for decades and they remain at the top even amongst the digital renaissance that we find ourselves in today. The 21st century has steadily catapulted towards the future with heavy emphasis on technology and social media. It is impossible to mention NYT Games without the 2022 Wordle or Connections crossing your mind. Students at Mills are frequent players of such games as it keeps them busy during dull moments. Nico LoFranco (12) expresses that he loves NYT Games because they “…stretch my already tired brain during the day.” LoFranco plays them everyday, either as soon as he wakes up or when he has time in between classes. The digital journalism scene is constantly changing and growing and we can always count on The New York Times to supply us with a never ending plethora of entertaining and mind-stimulating mini games for years to come.
