The Guardian Follows The NY Times In Making News A Platform
from the good-job dept
A bunch of folks have been sending in the wonderful news that the Guardian, in the UK, has opened up an API and is sharing data in such a way that others can build programs on top of the news. This is fantastic -- and follows on a similar move last month by the NY Times. It appears that both the NY Times and the Guardian really are pushing the boundaries of recognizing that being an online newspaper these days needs to be about a lot more than delivering the news.Perhaps even more interesting (though, getting much less attention) is the companion bit of news from some editors at the Guardian -- who are pointing out that they hope and pray each day that the NY Times gives into temptation and starts trying to charge for news... because it will create a huge opening for the Guardian to create a much larger online audience. This is what plenty of people have been pointing out for years: if clueless newspaper execs decide to start charging for news, it just opens the door wide for smarter news organizations to stay free and accumulate a much larger audience.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: api, news, newspapers, platform
Companies: ny times, the guardian
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
oh wait the uk government already does the innovation (or is that just spying
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
free is nice but not sustainable
The only two models I've seen that make sense are the "Basic Cable" ESPN 360 model, or the "ads or cash" Ultramercial model.
By racing to be the freest we just won't have newspapers anymore - not as Web pages, brands or even APIs. Only NPR.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: free is nice but not sustainable
OTOH you're right about one thing - generic banner ads have a lousy click-through rate. Newspapers need to wise up and make the adverts both relevant to the content and targeted to the demographic of their readers.
For example Guardian.co.uk is running with the German school shooting story as the lead today - and apparently if I stay at a Crown Plaza hotel for three nights I only have to pay for two! Not particularly relevant.
Admittedly this might not be the best example - any relevant ad against this sort of story runs the risk of appearing tactless. But I doubt they have any strategy in place for matching ads to stories.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Charge
[ link to this | view in chronology ]