Got RSS? Walker Fenton, general manager of syndication services for NewsGator, said newspapers are making a mistake by not capitalizing on RSS in their quest to gain new readers.

What is the value newspapers can exploit by using RSS?

Newspapers and media sites are seeing the same challenges they’ve always faced — trying to increase traffic to their sites and retaining visitors longer. What’s new is that the market has changed.

With the explosion of new functionality like MyYahoo or Google’s personalized home pages, NewsVine or NetVibes, users have more and more choices to discover and consume content, and because RSS makes content from disparate systems easily accessible, many sites are using this content combined with unique personalization and customization features to attract and retain new users.

How do RSS feeds help improve interaction between newspapers and their readers?

RSS is a great tool to support improved interaction ­— by making content available in more places, to share content between applications — regardless of whether the content is created by major publishers or from other users.

 

How has RSS technology changed over the past few years?

The specification hasn’t changed that much over the years. There have been extensions written, such as Yahoo’s Media RSS extensions, but the core is the same. What has changed are the creative ways that people are using the specification to solve problems. The fact that the protocol hasn’t changed that much has allowed programmers and publishers to build on top of a stable platform, which allows them more spend more time innovating and less time fixing applications when the spec changes.

What Web 2.0 trends do you believe newspapers should pay attention to?

There are several trends that newspapers should pay attention to: 

First, content will be available everywhere, in multiple media formats. RSS is not just about text. It is well suited for moving audio, video and images as well.

Second, content syndication will be easier and more prevalent. It is presumptive for any site to require users to come back and check for updates. Users should be able to take the content with them — and to include it on whatever blog, personal home page or social network they call home.

Finally, the world is going to become more personalized. While this is already in motion, it’s a theme that will go beyond favorite content from favorite sites. Personalization will also come from better understanding of both explicit and implicit user interaction and activity.