New York Times Online Gives Us Something Extra
Last week, The New York Times debuted Times Extra, an alternative view of the online homepage that showcases breaking news — from the papers’ competing news organizations. All registered readers can simply click a green button atop their screens to unlock the feature, which automatically shows articles related to the top headlines in a bright green boxes beneath the New York Times’ news.
There has been a bit of chatter that the Extra feature simply adds “unnecessary clutter” to the page, but I personally love it. The Grey Lady has long been my go-to source for news, supplemented by various other relevant sites. Their move to aggregated content on the site makes me even more likely to log onto the online site first, and will keep me coming back throughout the day.
In case you are curious, all the links come via Blogrunner, the buzz aggregator that the New York Times has owned since 2005 that has been responsible for publishing competing technology news on the site for quite some time.
As the future of newspapers comes into question, it is nice to see such a prominent player in the space make a bold move to change their online model. People who do not like Times Extra can simply click the “Switch Back” button to default to the standard home page.