I have been clocking in considerable time with nytimes.com over the past few months, and I feel like I have really gotten to know the site. Here are some nifty features that I’ve found:
Today’s Paper: the actual printed version online, not the flashed-up homepage.
Most Popular: see what stories are drawing the most attention. Pretty interesting!!!
Times Topics: search news by topic.
Times People: share articles and more Delicious-style.
Global Edition: includes more world news, although the US slant is still drastic.
Times Widgets: a library of tools, from financial data to film reviews, you can add to your website or blog.
Time Machine: an AMAZING tool that lets you flip though past issues of the NYT – all the way back to the first edition in 1851!!! It spans from the 1850s through the 1920s. I am not sure why it stops in the 20s. Maybe they are still adding??? You can look at the paper from when the Titanic went down or at the news from 100 years ago today. Obviously, this is an invaluable resource that standard papers just can’t offer.
I have become a loyal online reader. I have gotten into the routine of sitting down at the computer with my cup of coffee and reading nytimes.com each morning. It is reminiscent of the olden days when people use to sit down with those crumply, hard-to keep-organized things called newspapers, just more efficient.
I have set nytimes.com as my homepage, so I actually see it more than once over the course of the day. I don’t usually click into it after I read it in the morning, but every now and then there is breaking news that draws me back in. I like the feeling of being updated with the news every time I log on.
The site has recently been posting ads for an Adobe Air powered TimesReader 2.0 for $3.45 per week, but I think that I am fine with the free version for now. I might consider the paid version when I return to the States and rekindle my relationship with the iPhone, since the 2.0 version seems to been far better for reading on the go than the homepage. That is, as long as the free version remains free until December.
It seems that the company will unveil a new business plan very soon. Here’s a MediaMemo article on the possible directions NY Times could take when implementing a payment plan for online content. And just today they announced they’d added a “social media editor”.
I am excited by this new period in news. My prediction is that journalism – real researched, fact-checked, objective writing – will remain valuable.. I go to nytimes.com for my news because I trust it as a source, and I think that trust will most definitely retain its value – and maybe even be the hot stock of the future.
