New York Times opens new API

For all it's brand name inspires, the New York Times has been struggling. If not for an injection of funds from a rich, Mexican investor, they would be shutting up shop in March.

The real challenge that the NYT has been facing, though, is how to deal with the shift to online and mobile media. Today, they announced the launch of an API (http://open.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/announcing-the-article-search-api/) that will allow other web sites and applications to retrieve articles going all the way back to 1981.

What this allows is a new generation of web-based applications that can utilise the vast resources of the New York Times, in much the same way that the Google Maps API allowed a whole new generation of location-based applications.

The next question will be how they monetise this, if at all? It's great for the upcoming wave of "Web 3.0" (!), but will it effect their business?