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The New York Times, which is already one of the most quoted news sources by blogs, made it a little easier to integrate NYT reading into your social news activities.  The NYT already came up with a nifty news reader that I've taken some serious design tips in creating other applications.

Techcrunch, however, despite their already razor-sharp axe, saw fit to grind it some more, by saying:

This seems like a begrudging move for The Times, a paper with an elitist reputation and a crossword puzzle that you need a PhD to solve. A social networking site like Facebook doesn’t seem the type of company that The Times would consort with but getting into social news sharing is just good business these days.

If could only add the hip waggle and the "snap! snap!"

Techcrunch needs to do a bit of soul searching, I think.  This sort of attack is simply not warranted.  This is a great move by the NYT.  Not only is it "good business", but what I like is that it's a non-permanent move. 

Media distribution channels are changing, but the need for an organized media has not abated.  Inclusions of links to sites like this are easy to add to web sites and easy to change.  Rapidly changing the offerings and features on their web sites to match the activities of their readership is what will save mainstream media.

I, for one, think we'd be poorer without them.

 

Technorati tags: Mainstream media, new york times, techcrunch, snark

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