In what they position as a service to bewildered readers, some newspapers are building branded RSS newsreaders. The real purpose, of course, is to lift their own RSS streams to the forefront of a feed-saturated online universe. Wired reports that the L.A. Times, Denver Post, and other publications will soon launch branded aggregators that package an array of feeds including, naturally, their own. this is a sticky development, but an inevitable one. These things will compete with Google News and Yahoo! News for the browsing eyeballs of readers trolling the day's headlines, but the more meaningful competition is with the brand-neutral, level playing field of RSS distribution. What will be difference between visiting the Denver Post Web site and using the Denver Post newsreader (called News Hound)? And if the difference is slight, has RSS as a consumer convenience been neutered?
Newspapers Enter the Aggregation Business
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. I view this as just another step in the continuing popularization of RSS. It's like AOL making its own branded access product for the Internet in the 1990's. A lot of people may start by using the branded RSS product because it is there. That will open their eyes to the advantage of RSS readers.
My cut, people will cut over to generic readers as time goes by. Newspapers should stick to content and figure out how to compete in that landscape.
Posted at 4:46AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Bud Gibson
1. It would be interesting to see if these aggregators let you add any feed to them or just ones thats published in a 'directory' by the news paper. In other words will they try and push out the blog generated traffic in favor of those created by their affiliates.
Posted at 4:46AM on Dec 19th 2005 by R.I.Pienaar