The New York Times as a Service Platform

It’s no secret that the traditional media industry — newspapers, especially — has been disrupted by the rise of web-based services like craigslist. With traditional advertising placement plummeting, even tent pole journalism brands like the New York Times are struggling.

Despite this, the Times has been one of the innovation leaders in the newspaper industry over the last year. It has made its own news for its unique and informative visualizations of the Summer Olympics medal count and the Twitter chatter during the Super Bowl. More importantly, the Times’ have started providing open API access to their content such as movie reviews and — more recently — their entire news archive of nearly 3 million articles since 1981. The Gray Lady is changing from a newspaper brand into a news service platform.

This might seem counterproductive. The Times’ most valuable asset is their news, right? After all, Gatehouse Media just sued the Times for re-purposing (and linking to) their content,  so why would The Gray Lady give their news away, for free?

Because its most valuable asset is not (nor has it ever been) news — it’s greatest asset is eyeballs. The more the Times allows others to take their news and mash it up with other relevant content, the more unique value it provides to its readers.  And the more unique value provided, the more readers come and stay. It’s a great example of inviting interaction.

Despite the collapse of the newspaper industry, there is a still a need for quality, facts-based news in this world. One newspaper can’t possibly fill all of the media channels we consume every day, but by providing open, machine-consumable access to their content, the Times is betting that the networked world will come to its rescue. While it’s still early to tell what the return on its investment will be, the Times’ move to a platform of services is a great attempt to innovate out of a potential catastrophe.

Image by Joe Shlabotnik on Flickr