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Time.com Revamps, Embraces Social Media

Time Magazine named bloggers and other content-creators as the Person of the Year, and now the magazine’s site is beefing up its blogging and feed presence.

A key new addition to the site will be a service called “The Ag,” which will aggregate stories from news sources as well as blogs, and publish entries each morning at 7 a.m., MediaPost reports (via MarketingVox). Time.com will also add a new blog titled Swampland - hosted by Washington editor Ana Marie Cox - which will focus on political news. Time will boost the output from its existing blogs as well. All writers for the site will now publish at least two posts per day.

Time.com General Manager John Cantarella explains that the site’s layout will be streamlined to allow more room for display and video advertising. “We’ve redesigned all the pages and made sure there’s not a lot of clutter,” he said. The site will also offer integrated sponsorship packages as well as advertising coupled to social media formats such as podcasts and RSS feeds.

“Starting today, Time.com becomes a 24/7 news site,” said Cantarella in a statement.  “We’re delighted to offer Time.com users a completely new and richer experience on the site, and also give advertisers a rapidly growing, desirable audience in a clutter-free environment.”

The following are among the initial new features of Time.com:

• “The Ag” - An aggregation and summary of the most important news stories every day by 7 a.m. ET from daily newspapers and blogs around the world.
• “Swampland” - Hosted by Time.com’s Washington editor Ana Marie Cox, this blog will include political buzz and breaking news from Time’s political team, including columnist Joe Klein and Washington bureau chief Jay Carney.
• A regular column on intelligence by former CIA operative Robert Baer.
• “The Curious Capitalist” - Former Fortune writer Justin Fox brings his business blog to Time.com later this month.
• “Looking Around” - Time art critic Richard Lacayo blogs about the worlds of art, architecture and photography.
• China blog - Time’s Susie Jakes and Bill Powell report from China.
• “Nerd World” - Time’s book critic and self-proclaimed “King of Nerdistan,” Lev Grossman blogs about video games, fantasy books and other hallmarks of “Nerd Culture.”
• Middle East blog - Time’s Scott MacLeod and Andrew Butters will report on the latest news out of the region and provide a forum for readers to debate issues.
• The entire Time archive of stories and covers, dating back to the magazine’s 1923 debut issue, free of charge.