• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, December 8, 2011

The 2012 campaign season is already shaping up to be a fierce political contest, with close-run elections for the White House and numerous seats in the Senate and House of Representatives. To provide mobile users with up-to-date political news as it unfolds, The New York Times has launched a new Election 2012 App for the iPhone and iPod Touch, now available at the Apple App Store.

The central feature of the app is a news feed that will be constantly updated by a dedicated editor, with stories grouped by topic and links to articles, blog posts, videos and tweets.

The app draws on content from NYT blogs, including The Caucus and FiveThirtyEight, as well as campaign-related columns, op-eds and editorials. It is personalized to highlight new content since the user last visited.

The Election 2012 App also houses an “Election Guide” that aggregates a variety of data, including the most recent poll figures; candidate profile pages with updated bios, campaign finance, poll results and tweets; state profiles with demographic numbers, past primary winners and delegate rules; a primary calendar; and live election results.

Readers who do not have an iPhone or iPod Touch can still access the information contained in the Election 2012 app by visiting the Election 2012 mobile site. The six top stories are accessible for free to anyone who downloads the app; however, a digital subscription to the NYT is required for full access to all stories.

The NYT is not the only publication creating special news hubs to cover the coming political season.

New York is launching a new politics channel, “Early & Often,” at nymag.com/politics, offering daily polls, videos, a number of the da, and Electopedia, a continually updated almanac of the candidates and  issues. For New York’s 2012 election. Early & Often will feature reporting from the trail, profiles of key election players, analysis of polls, reviews of campaign ads from New York's culture critics and daily commentary.