Media News - Friday, August 28, 2009

Journalists as tutors - a new way for papers to make money and build audiences

There are new ways for newspapers to make money from the talents of their journalistic staff in these cash-strapped times, as the latest initiative by the New York Times illustrates. Its columnists have been recruited to the paper's teaching staff for its adult education (knowledge network) courses. Times readers, can pay $125 (£76) to $185 (£115) to study for a week under their journalist tutors. They can learn how the lives of women have changed over the last half century with Gail Collins, take part in an online seminar about sex trafficking with Nicholas Kristof or discover the joys of California wines with Eric Asimov. According to Nieman Journalism Lab's assistant editor, Zachary Seward, the participation of Kristof, Collins, and Asimov could be a precursor to the membership model the NYTimes is considering in its search for new revenue streams on the web. As Gawker reported last month, the NYTimes is actively discussing the idea of offering paying readers to chance to enjoy special access to its journalists. This seems to echo The Guardian's tentative move towards creating a readers' club in order to build a new revenue stream for the paper. Note the wording of the job posting to recruit a general manager for the club, which stresses that its ambition is "to move us decisively away from the traditional rather distant relationship that newspaper companies have had with their readers." (The Guardian)

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