The New York Tomes announced yesterday that they are making a huge inventory of articles open to search – everything printed since 1981. And it’s all been tagged and labeld and has 35 searhable fields. That recipe you remember seeing in the NYT way back when?  Now you can find it!

A strong press organ with open data is to the rest of the web what basic newspaper delivery was to otherwise remote communities in another period of history. It’s a transformation moment towards interconnectedness and away from isolation. This could throw the doors wide open to a future where “newspapers” are important again. ReadWriteWeb

Why is this important?  Not only can peole search and find information in this repository -  other sites and blogs can  link to those articles and enrich their own content.

Why is it important to PR?  Any coverage you win in the NYT is now open to search and retrieval.  And since the NYT is such a highly ranked website it is likely to come up high in the search engines. Newspaper coverage will be on the list of needed and desirable digital assets.