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USA Today rolls out open API strategy to encourage app development

USA Today has made its APIs available via the new USA Today Developer Network where developers can discover content and build new applications for the Web and digital platforms.

With the launch of the USA Today developer network the company invites developers to experience exciting new ways to tap into some of the great content that is unique to USA Today. USA Today partnered with Mashery to help launch the API.

?Our developer network and open API strategy gives us insight into how the innovative developer community is reimagining our content,? said Steve Kurtz, vice president of digital development at USA Today, Washington. ?We?re opening product development.

?It also helps us to understand demand for our unique content and whether there is a potential business model,? he said. ?It allows us to tie identity and usage metrics to the customers that use our content services.

?We partnered with Mashery because we felt they offered best-in-class API management services that complemented the Web services layer we already had in place.?

Open API
USA Today is a multi-platform news and information media company.

Mashery has a holistic approach for API initiatives?from setting platform strategy and measuring business objectives to the heavy lifting of providing and managing infrastructure to facilitating relationships with its network of Web and mobile application developers.

Two APIs are currently available on the USA Today developer portal.

The Best-Selling Books API lets developers retrieve information about the USA Today Best-Selling Books list, as well as list history and other metadata for individual books.

The Professional Sports Salaries API offers detailed data from USA Today?s sports salaries database dating back more than 20 years, and includes MLB, NFL, NBA and the NHL.

Additional APIs will be released on an ongoing basis at http://developer.usatoday.com.

Driving app development
As of recently, a lot of companies have been opening their APIs to developers.

For example, in September Verizon Wireless? opened its network by making available 20 different location-, messaging- and network-based APIs to developers.

Verizon is hoping that its network APIs will foster development of new, innovative applications by giving third-party developers access to the Verizon Wireless network.

Messaging APIs will let developers create applications and services that send, receive and request receipt of text and multimedia messages for Verizon Wireless customers.

?An API strategy is becoming a must-have for the digital media industry in terms of speed to market with new products, maximizing business development and product development opportunities,? Mr. Kurtz said.

?Our developer network and accompanying APIs and their documentation provides developers with a self-service means of interfacing with our content,? he said.

Final take
Giselle Tsirulnik is senior editor of Mobile Marketer
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