Nat Ives of Advertising Age, in a wide-ranging story about the New York Times, reports that the paper is about to launch a huge increase in its online business and economics news and commentary, primarily to compete with The Wall Street Journal.
Ives writes, “As it happenes, the Times is about to dramatically expand its business coverage online, gradually introducing a slew of pages on subjects including the economy, energy, small business, personal finance and enterprise technology, according to Vivian Schiller, senior VP-general manager of NYTimes.com.
“Built on the model of DealBook, Andrew Ross Sorkin’s popular blog for the business section, each one will include original reporting and commentary from a dedicated staffer, news aggregated from elsewhere, relevant tools, e-mail newsletters, mobile applications and more.
“Despite this expansion into the Journal’s core competency, Mr. Sulzberger avoids talk of direct confrontation. As a London correspondent for the AP from 1976 to 1978, when he joined the Times, he saw British papers reach when Mr. Murdoch took over the Times of London. ‘It didn’t help them, because they stopped remembering who they were,’ he said. ‘We’re not going to.”
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