NYTimes.com to Supplement Tech Coverage
November 9th, 2007 — Dan Endy
NYTimes.com has supplemented its technology coverage with popular tech blogs from Blogrunner, the content aggregator it purchased last year. In the saturated online news market – where portals now occupy three of the top ten news spots, and blogs and aggregators continue to emerge – the strategy for blue chip news brands becomes: If you can’t beat them, buy them (if you can afford them), integrate them and become them. Individually, news blogs and aggregators garner high praise but low unique visitors. The marriage between big eyeballs and big functionality makes sense.
In early October, MSNBC.com bought Newsvine for its social networking and rating capabilities. For the Times, the play is to broaden its offerings beyond its editorial walls. Clearly, the reward of maintaining itself as a top news destination comes at the risk of introducing competitive technology sites to consumers. Additionally, the Times must be careful to protect its journalistic image, “managing the stylistic tension between blogging and formal article writing,” as Greg Sterling puts it. Ultimately, this is a smart move for the Times. The trend is clear: The winners in news won’t be the sites that simply create and market their own content, but the ones that bring consumers the best content and functionality available.
