US: The New York Times launches API

Posted by Lauren Drablier on October 16, 2008 at 10:01 AM

The New York Times launched Application Programming Interface (API) on Tuesday, October 14. The NYT APIs are a way in which outside developers can access NYT data for use in other applications, interfaces and mashups, according to Read Write Web.

The Campaign Finance API was the first to be launched. The next API to be launched will be a movie review.

The NYT website describes the new API; "With the Campaign Finance API, you can retrieve contribution and expenditure data based on United States Federal Election Commission filings. Campaign finance data is public and is therefore available from a variety of sources...you can use the Times Campaign Finance API to quickly retrieve totals for a particular candidate, see aggregates by ZIP code or state, or get details on a particular donor."

Currently, the Campaign API is limited to presidential campaign data, but plans have been announced to include house and senate data in the future.

APIs are important for newspapers because it is a means to process information and archive content. And why newspapers? Because they are in a position where they can do it, bloggers and small newspapers cannot. Read Write Web believes that "steps like this are going to prove key if big media is to thrive in the future."

According to RWW, "Further, the times are changing and if you're not publishing for those readers of yours who happen to be robots - you're missing out on an important constituency. We're really excited about the New York Times APIs and we look forward to seeing what kinds of innovative things the development community can do with them."

Sources: Read Write Web, European Journalism Centre, The New York Times