• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, November 4, 2008

The New York Times later this month will launch TimesExtra, a new service that adds related links from across the Web to stories on the NYTimes.com home page. Users will be able to access TimesExtra via a button at the top of the home page.

Speaking Tuesday on a panel at the ad:tech New York conference dubbed "Publishing in the Digital Age--Context is King," NYTimes.com Senior Vice President and General Manager Vivian Schiller called the move "a quantum leap" for the publication.

TimesExtra, which incorporates the Blogrunner news-tracking service into the home page, is the latest digital initiative by the Times designed to help the newspaper appeal to a broader audience online and boost engagement. "We think this is the right thing for our audience and will engender loyalty," Schiller said.

Online remains a lone bright spot for The Times Company, as Internet revenue increased 6.7% compared to an overall revenue decline of 8.9%, according to the company's preliminary third-quarter report issued last month. But even online growth has slowed as a result of the economic downturn.

A TimesExtra screenshot showed several related links below top stories on the NYTimes.com main page, similar to how outside links are now provided in other sections including Times Topics, where information from various sources on specific topics is collected on single pages.

The newspaper also recently launched TimesPeople, a bookmarking and content-sharing service still in beta testing. "Despite some people's perceptions...we're not so arrogant as to believe we have the best content out there," Schiller said. The panel overall focused on the continuing importance of established content brands in the digital era to help consumers sort through and make sense of the torrent of information available online. Moderator Pam Horan, president of the Online Publishers Association, pointed to a recent study by the group in which 62% of consumers agreed it can be difficult to find what they are looking for on the Web.

The OPA survey also found, among other things, that ads running on branded content sites have a greater impact on key metrics like brand favorability and purchase intent than ad networks, portals and even Internet industry norms.

Trying to maintain a trusted brand online while adapting to the fragmented and consumer-driven nature of the Web is the balancing act that many established newspapers and magazines are trying to pull off.

To that end, BusinessWeek in September started the Business Exchange, a social media platform that lets users create pages on business topics of interest to which other members can then submit posts, articles or other content. A "Most Active" tab shows which posts within a topic users have read, saved or commented on the most.

Panelist John Byrne, executive editor and editor in chief of BusinessWeek, said the Business Exchange had so far exceeded expectations, with more than 700 topics created and a click-through rate on targeted ads that surpasses that of its main site.

He also said that 364,000 Business Exchange pages had been indexed by Google, making it easy to find content produced by the social property. "My profile comes up on this before LinkedIn or Facebook or anywhere else," Byrne said. "So we see seem to have gotten the search thing right."

Developing new social platforms to help drive engagement is what advertisers and agencies hope to see from traditional publishers on the Web. Robin Steinberg, vice president, print activation director at MediaVest, said too many magazine sites are edited like the print version.

"So what needs to happen is that they need to drive consumers to the site not only a weekly basis but on a daily basis, and we just don't see that," Steinberg said. She added that packaged goods companies have generally been more adventurous when it comes to advertising on social media, while financial services advertisers have stuck with more established online formats.

Schiller noted that Web 2.0 efforts by the NYTimes.com have been well-received by marketers. "What we've found is, in speaking to marketers, they have been very eager to participate in launches of a lot of things we've been speaking about," she said.