is a personalised service that allows readers to follow coverage in The New York Times on specific topics that interest them.
As articles that match their criteria are published on the Times' website, subscribers receive an email alert with a hotlink and an abstract of the article, allowing readers to follow Times coverage on issues that are most relevant to them.
Launched in March 2002 as a free service, Times News Tracker grew to a base of nearly 500,000 subscribers in less than a year. News Tracker evolved to a pay service in May 2003 with an annual fee of $19.95. The free service allowed users to create up to three customised topics, while the enhanced service was expanded to 10 topics.
Subscribers can create News Trackers by topic, stock ticker, or any combination of keywords to narrowly define their search criteria. Users also select frequency of email delivery -- News Trackers can be sent immediately as relevant articles are published on NYTimes.com, or as a daily or weekly email digest of all matching articles published during that period of time.
Stephen Newman, director of operations for NYTimes.com, said: "Times News Tracker is a valuable tool for professionals and enthusiasts alike. It's the only service that efficiently delivers immediate access to the deep coverage and analysis of The New York Times, so you won't miss what's most important to your world. We are happy to see many loyal users of the free service become subscribers, and look forward to attracting a steady stream of new subscribers going forward."
The enhanced service includes a 90-day personal archive of articles matching a subscriber's topics. Another new feature is a listing of the most popular News Tracker topics, which gives subscribers as well as non-subscribers insight into what other users are tracking. In addition, the Member Center customer service area of NYTimes.com was redesigned and upgraded in conjunction with the relaunch of News Tracker.
Other paid content available on NYTimes.com includes Premium Crosswords, the online source for the daily Times crossword as well as 2,000 archived crosswords, for an annual fee of $34.95. NYTimes.com also offers paid archives for articles more than seven days old. NYTimes.com is a free site that requires registration.
New York Times Digital recently announced it had achieved eight consecutive quarters of operating profit, including a record profit of $4.3m (£2.7m) in the second quarter of 2003.
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