New York Times is now in (and leading) the conversation

In September of 2007, The New York Times made a monumental decision to stop charging for TimesSelect (the NYTimes online) as well as opening up their archives searchable back into the 1800's. Big risk but was a brilliant strategic move in my opinion.

I've been noticing the Times showing up more frequently as the thought leader blog on the memetracker (blogosphere conversation tracker) Techmeme. Today is a great example (and yes, I understand Sunday is the most in-depth article day), but I've never seen FOUR of them above-the-fold previously.

Why is this such a brilliant strategic move? As evidenced by not only being IN the conversation on Techmeme, they're also LEADING many of the conversations. Very smart, heh?

With more of us consuming news and information on the Web -- and now video and full TV shows -- there is no question that any organization wishing for relevancy going forward needs to be 100% immersed in Internet-centric media and the attention being paid there vs. traditional media. It's the only way to quickly shift, modify, and embrace emergent new media forms as well as be a leading provider right smack-dab-in-the-middle of where our attention is increasingly being focused.