Times Extra: The New York Times Opens Web Front Page to Outside Content
At a time when the online world is continually seen as a more trusted source of news, mainstream media outlets find themselves forced into the position of becoming more and more open to keep their readers coming back. Removing "paid subscription" requirements that prevented everyday users from accessing content was one of the first cracks in the walled gardens. Opening APIs to other developers has been gaining favor. And now, another trend is coming to light: incorporating third-party content to supplement the original content the sites are offering. Today, the Gray Lady joined those ranks as the The New York Times launched Times Extra, a view of its front page supplemented with content from other news sources and blogs.
The third-party content will be gathered and ranked by Blogrunner, a news aggregator purchased by The Times Company in 2005. Up to eight supporting articles will be accessible - users may have to scroll to see all of them - from each front page article.
Now, this may seem like a relatively insignificant step for people who live and breathe the Web every day. But for traditional media companies, this sharing of column inches with other publications is not only difficult, it's something they have feared (emphasis is mine):
"The days when content sites were afraid to link to other sites are over," said Marc Frons, chief technology officer for digital operations for The New York Times Company.
So it comes as little surprise that NYT is dipping its toe in the water rather cautiously. Rather than replacing the default front page, Times Extra will serve as an additional version of the NYT front page that users can activate by clicking a link. However, that version only remains active for 24 hours, at which point the user will have to activate the Times Extra front page, again.
Whatever the case, this is a step in the right direction. A small step, but a good step nonetheless. Hopefully, the next move to be open will involve NYT sharing the metrics about how many users opt to use Times Extra and - given the options - where they choose to go for their news.
Disclosure: ReadWriteWeb has an existing syndication arrangement with The New York Times
Share
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
This is interesting and its good. Just look at realclearpolitics.com One of the reason it is so popular is because of its feeds. i think Dailykos should also start doing something like this. But still I think NY Times shouldn't put others related content on the FRONT PAGE. They should have it under each article. Or on side of each article. But this is a great move and idea by NYTimes. CNN and especially Sports Illustrated lives on this.
Regards: rizzy
http://twitter.com/rizzy81
Kudos to the times. Jeff Jarvis has been preaching this for ages now ("do what you do best, link to the rest!"). I'm happy to see some of the more mainstream news organizations move in this direction. Without wanting to sound too doomdayish, it really is a question of "innovate or die."
I've said it before: Blogs will be the new AP of journalism.
This is something that local papers could be doing with blogs that cover their state news and/or blogs that originate in their coverage area. It can be an expansion of local.
The digital strategy of the NYT is bold and interesting and I've written an article about that : http://bit.ly/tcdD. But will it be enough to save them (http://bit.ly/GlwR)?
BTW, the "Times Extra" link above is dead.
This is great! It's what "web 2.0" is about, working with competitors. It's how blogs became so popular. I just wish I could get my site linked on the front page of NYTimes.com!
-Andrew
@Eric Schwartzman Thanks for the heads up on that link. (It was provided prior to launch, so we had no way to test it.) It has been removed.
Rick,
In an article by Cory Doctorow on Blogger Relations, he advises PR people to have a permalink for everything. Do you trust the PR person at the NYT less because they hosed you on the link?
@ericschwartzman
@Eric Schwartzman It's unfortunate, but these things do happen from time to time.
I do, however, have to apologize to any RWW readers who clicked on the link only to find a 404. That's my responsibility to ensure that I'm providing accurate information, not the PR person's.
And thank you, again, for taking the time to point it out to me.
I posted just a few days ago wondering if we'd ever see a running twitter feed next to a NYTimes.com article to provide an extra level of coverage. Seems like this could be a step towards that.
http://discobeta.com/2008/12/04/how-news-sites-can-integrate-twitter/
-- Adam
Newspapers need to decide what they will become, a content creator or a content distributor. They can mix both, but need to have one or the other as their primary identity. It is like either Techcrunch or Techmeme. Either can work, but not trying to be both with one site.
If they want to be a content aggregator, then they have another choice of how to prioritize the news. Broadly, you can base it on the public (show what they want to see) or on yourself (show what you want them to see).