Update, 9:08 a.m.: The NYT is featuring the above headline on the Extra Home Page. Good for the Times! Ahead I’ll reproduce a screen shot of the head from Extra. Now if only the paper will retain the blog headline option! – D.R.
The New York Times is mysteriously killing the wonderful “Extra” option, which, if you turn it on, will turbo-charge the home page with blog headlines blended in with news stories. December 1 is when the option will vanish. Without offering an explanation, a home-page notice directs readers to the Blogrunner aggregation service, which, for now, has a lower Alexa “reach” score than TeleRead.
I’m baffled why Extra option is disappearing and will ask the Times for an answer. “Extra” is one reason why I spend far more time with the Times than the Washington Post even though I live in the D.C. area. Is “Extra” not bringing in enough readers to justify the bother of having it? Is the Times worried that outside blogs are enjoying too much exposure? Or does it want to protect Blogrunner? In the Times place, I’d worry more about the total number of eyeballs and less about Blogrunner individually.
And speaking of the Times: Story shows how the Times still doesn’t get e-books
The smartphone-vs.-dedicated-reader debate, long familiar to TeleRead community members, is the topic of a feature called Library in a pocket.
The most interesting stat is from the Codex Group—predicting that there might be four million owners of Kindles and other dedicated devices after the holidays, far more than the current estimate of 1.7 million. There are 84 million smart phones and similar, at least 50 million of which, being iPhones and iPod Touches, can run e-book software like Stanza and a Kindle app.
Sure enough, as required by law, the Gray Lady ends the feature with a story of a father who keeps paper books around for his kid. Hmm. Does this mean that parents should do likewise with paper newspapers? Just as oddly, the Times does the future-of-books act with too much of either-or-approach. An e-book-hip reader responds with, “Does the future of transportation lie in airplanes, or cars?” As someone who goes back and forth between an iPod, a laptop and E Ink devices and a desktop, I’m hardly alone; and stories like this annoy the hell out of me.
Update, 9:08 a.m.: What this post’s headline looks like on the home page of the NYT’s Extra Home Page
To the New York Times’ credit, it is now featuring the above headline on the Extra Home Page. This is how it looks—a kind of virtual hall of mirrors.
Reminder/Disclosure
We’re a news-and-views outfit, and it’s always possible we may have dealings with the Times—or other media. That said, as you can see from the above, we’ll not let business issues get in the way of our coverage.
