The NYT has announced the integration of Blogrunner–a news aggregator similar to Techmeme–a service it acquired in 2005. Take a look at the Technology section and you’ll see the "Technology Headlines From Around the Web".

That the NYT is adding news from other resources–including blogs–is not a big surprise. The newspaper is one of the few mainstream media sites that appear to "get" social media and are aggressively pursuing models that embrace citizen journalism.

Equally not surprising is the way other MSM sites have handled this announcement–they’ve not said a word. Looking at Google News, you’ll see that only blogs appear to be talking about the announcement. Isn’t that just indicative of all that is wrong with old-school media? Heaven forbid they link to an announcement by one of their rivals! Contrast that with bloggers. Marketing Pilgrim constantly links to sites that you might consider to be our competitors–TechCrunch, Mashable, SEL, etc–because we know that by doing so, we add value to your reading experience (plus, they’re great sites).

NYT is going to be a lone beacon for a while. Until other mainstream news sites realize that you have more to gain than lose–by linking to your rivals–they will continue to look like social media noobs!

Comments

AP Is Dead … Killed By Blogs & Aggregation

In the pre-Internet days the AP had little competition beyond a few other news syndicators like Reuters and UPI. The AP’s world has now changed forever with the advent of blogs and news aggregation sites.

Blogs are the new "AP" journalists and aggregation services which started with NewsLinx.com in 1996 (founded by me!) and which now include Google News, Topix, Techmeme, WebProWire and the new Blogrunner have made the AP much less relevant. There are now tens of thousands of  bloggers around the world providing coverage and analysis of current events too! It comes down to why pay when you can get the news for free.

The AP is scrambling to remain needed in this fast paced up to the second blog news world. As reported and analyzed by WebProNews, the AP is suing Moreover for of all things… linking to AP stories. Does the AP not realize that winning this suit would result in less readers of their stories? The old news order is dead, the AP will have to adapt or die.

AP President and CEO Tom Curley does seem to realize that something has to change. In a speech yesterday Curley remarked:

" We — the news industry — have come to that fork in the road. We must take bold, decisive steps to secure the audiences and funding to support journalism’s essential role in both our economy and democracy, or find ourselves on an ugly path to obscurity."

Curley goes on to say that "we must understand and embrace the new ways people are consuming content".

Right …. like blogs and news aggregation and linking! Does the AP really get it? I personally don’t think so. Tom Curley’s entire speech on how news is changing does not even mention blogs or news aggregation. He also seemingly references his linking lawsuit when telling the audience …

" We have the power to control how our content flows on the Web. We must use that power if we’re to continue to be financially secure and independent enough to speak truth to power." 

The Associated Press model of news is dead … dead as can be. It is a business model that pays reporters to travel and write stories and then syndicate those stories to traditional news organizations. This model cannot compete with bloggers who write for free and often live where the news is. Additionally these bloggers are often experts, not just reporters looking in. News is now being reported by the news makers themselves who blog about it and then analyzed by hundreds of experts who themselves blog.

Aggregations sites have made the need for news syndicators like the AP obsolete. Bloggers themselves, by linking to related stories have also become content syndicators.

The AP’s relevance has disappeared. The AP’s business model has evaporated. The AP is dead, killed by blogs and news aggregation.

Content is selected by NYT editors based on its significance, but is initially gleaned from Blogrunner.com‘s feed aggregator. The expanded technology section is intended to offer readers a more comprehensive understanding of companies, trends, policy, and business.

NYTimes.com senior vice president and general manager Vivian Schiller speaks more like a leathery general in online combat. "This new site further enhances The New York Times’s dominant position among the influential readers who frequent our business and technical sections. With the deployment of Blogrunner to aggregate the most relevant content from around the Web, we will further solidify our position as the online ‘must-read.’"

It looks as though content is still in the process of being built up, as some categories are lacking. But the Times hasn’t shied away from including traditional competitors like the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal. Click on an article, and the editors provide links to related articles, communities and threads.

"This section is essentially all you need to understand everything that is happening, on any given day, in the world of technology," said Lawrence Ingrassia, business and financial editor, The New York Times.

And you know, he may be right about that. The layout is fantastic, the user interface is highly intuitive, and it pulls in content from everywhere. Time will tell its weaknesses. Early on, one of those weaknesses appears to be speed, with sources appearing within hours where TechMeme and Google News aggregators pop up within minutes.

But they don’t have that editor’s touch, nor the nice layout. And the NYT website has an automatic 14 million plus readership to direct.