The New York Times' New Web App "Today's Paper" Doesn't Look Like It

For an old grey lady, The New York Times has been working hard to stay on the cusp of technology and design for digital news, while maintaining the hallmarks of old media that make it the newspaper of record for the nation. On Thursday, the New York Times launched a redesigned web app aimed at both goals: high-tech delivery and old-style organization.

The app, "Today's Paper," is "built with the latest HTML 5 technologies," according to the Times' press release, and "developed for readers who value the regular schedule, structured composition and totality of the daily print edition."

The web app, built for tablets and desktop browsers, replaces the original "Times' Web App for iPad," launched in beta on Sept. 2012. "Soon after we launched our experimental Web App we discovered that Today's Paper was one of the most popular sections," said Denise Warren, executive vice president of digital products and services, The New York Times. "This new reading experience is the next step in our ongoing process to develop new and valuable digital products that offer our subscribers other innovative ways to access our content."

The idea behind the app is to give daily readers a virtual copy of the day's paper, and that day's paper only. The app is open to digital subscribers and home delivery subscribers that have linked their accounts for digital delivery, and it includes all of the sections, articles, and photos you'd find in the print edition. There's a little video added as well, since it's digital.

While users have access to seven days' worth of New York Times editions, each day's articles comes grouped together like a real newspaper. "With Today's Paper, readers who enjoy the serendipity of reading The New York Times in print can now enjoy that same rich experience on their tablet or Web browser," said Jill Abramson, executive editor, The New York Times.

The idea is reminiscent of what Media columnist/genius David Carr said in the documentary Page One, after getting a guided tour of NYTimes.com through the then brand-new, high-tech iPad: (about 1 minute in)

"Sweet. That is a great reading experience right there. You know what it reminds me of? A newspaper."

If only that damning faint praise could apply to the new "Today's Paper" web app. Entering "Today's Paper" gives you a "front page" snapshot view, from which you can select a paper from the last week.

After that, the user experience on the app gets as boring and as blandly digital as it can get. Instead of an interface that looks like a digital newspaper - something like an enhanced version of the New York Times Skimmer app - users are greeted with something resembling the Times' utilitarian list-and-click Times Wire.

To be sure, the article layout is clean and full of space, and on tablets it looks like it will take much more advantage of swiping motions to navigate from story to story, section to section. And because all articles are loaded in a Tumblr-style long-scroll, the web app will make it easier for offline reading.

It's just disappointing that once you open "Today's Paper," it looks nothing like today's paper.

"Today's Paper" works with Chrome, Safari, and IE web browsers on Android, iOS, and Windows tablets (the app is not optimized for smartphones), along with those same browsers on PCs and Macs, according to PCMag. Firefox is not currently supported.