My [NYT] Times My Way
Among North American newspapers, the New York Times has been on the leading-edge when it comes to the Web. I was invited to try the new My Times service (it's in beta), which lets you personalize a news “portal” with NYT content, external news sources and blogs. My initial impression is it's ”good, quite good” because it combines the NYT's first-rate content (news, politics, sports, technology, arts, science) with high-quality external content such as CNet, BusinessWeek, The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. You can even search for other content, which - much to my surprise - let me add my blog to My Times. To be honest, I'm not a big portal person even though I have My Yahoo and Google configured as start pages. That said, My Times is impressive enough to make me change my ways. My Times is a good example of how newspapers need to be pro-active and forward-thinking if they want to remain viable and vital - even an “institution” such as the NYT is not immune. See my post from yesterday for more thoughts on how newspapers need to embrace/adopt the Web.
Update: Richard McManus has an extensive post on the soon-to-be launched Times Reader service that's a must-read for anyone interested in the service.
