Quick Thoughts on Times Extra

On the home page of the New York Times, you can now turn on Times Extra, which will add news and blog items from Blogrunner underneath the headlines of the top Times stories.

Many of the links seem intelligent and interesting, although with all the little scrolling windows it adds to the home page, it’s pretty ugly. And I wonder if the links to external content wouldn’t make even more sense on the actual article pages, rather than pockmarking the home page. Isn’t the article page where you’re more likely to want to dig even deeper on a topic?

Your Best Online Business Idea for 2009

During 2008, thanks to my wonderful clients, I’ve been spending a lot of time talking with online business news and information users. I’m forced to the conclusion that there is a terrific opportunity, in almost every vertical slice of the market, for a new online business that’s there for the taking.

That business is to provide not just news, but data, education, and answers … not just what happened today on a topic or an industry problem, but everything you need to know to understand it and react to it intelligently.

A real business information source of the kind I’m talking about would combine the best elements of a great news site (currency, intelligent organization, multiple sources) with a deep vertical Wikipedia, integrating valuable reference data, how-tos and explainers with crowdsourced industry data and commentary. And guess what? Unlike a plain old news site, I am sure people and companies will pay for the privilege of belonging to a site that can become a respected go-to resource.

It’s not easy to execute – in fact, I’m not sure anyone has really done a site like this yet. Like all real information businesses, it’ll take the right talent to build it and run it. Industry commentator Jeff Jarvis is trying to get us to call the skills you’ll need to create a news product in the future “curating” – but I’m not sure that nails it. A site like I’m talking about won’t just arrange and package things that already exist somewhere; to establish the level of expertise and reliability it will need, it will also have to go ahead and create information if what users really need and want just can’t be found anywhere else.

In a way, what I think people in business are looking for is (brace yourself) a richer and deeper about.com that operates at a high professional level, with respected industry experts who pull together all the disparate types of “help” people in an industry need, no matter what it is or where it comes from.

Anyone interested in that business?