All The News That's Fit to Aggregate

The New York Times has jumped into the news aggregation game with Times Extra, an alternate version of its home page that adds links to related stories from other sites and even blogs. (Click the little Times Extra button on the upper right of the page to see it.)

I agree with some other commentators that the display of the aggregated content is ungainly and unattractive–as one critic points out, it may actually lead readers to visit the linked stories before they click on the Times' own story–and the site really needs to add the feature at the section and story level. And for now, the links appear to be mostly automated, powered by Blogrunner, which the Times happens to own (how convenient), rather than hand-chosen.

But that's quibbling. Times Extra is a watershed development, a major hole punched in one of the thickest walled gardens in journalism. By acknowledging that there's good journalism being done elsewhere–and even directing readers toward it–the Times is tapping the potential of aggregation to reassert itself as an ultimate news authority. 

Traditionalists would fret that the Times is sending readers away; instead, what it's doing is presenting itself as a reader's guide to the best of what's available on the news of the day, aiding readers who don't have time to wander the Web looking for other sources. As Drudge and others have proven, that's a powerful, if perhaps counterintuitive, strategy.

On a related note, with a tip of the hat to Craig Stoltz, check out Blogrunner's Annotated New York Times. Very interesting–why isn't this linked from the Times' home page?