New York Times Starts Wine and Film Clubs

Here is a topic for the holiday season. I have been covering the plight of traditional media for some time on this blog. As Editor and Publisher reports, merchandising has been an afterthought at newspapers. But now with shrinking revenues that are attempting to get creative.  Within the US you can get model airplanes, wine, hippie-era concert posters, antique maps, wood from the Titanic and even a broader range outside the US.

The post points out that, “the British national paper the Guardian, for instance, offers cottage rentals, duvets, CD players, plant seeds and dozens of other gift items. It has an entire "Guardian Fashion Store" offering shoes, suits and pajamas. The Telegraph in London makes about a quarter of its profit selling things, notes Jeff Jarvis, "They are the leading retailer of clothes hangers in the U.K.”

This even applies to traditional old guard papers as both The New York Times and The Wall Street  Journal have started wine businesses. Editor and Publisher quotes Alice Ting, executive director of brand development at the NYT. "Like a lot of newspapers, we were looking to expand into different verticals," she says. "If you think of the newspaper, we report on dining and food and home and health, so we've always looked at whether there was a way to extend the brand into those areas." She adds that research showed Times readers had a "very strong affinity toward wine consumption and spending on wine," The New York Times Wine Club, offers members a selection of wines at two price levels, $90 or $180 per six-bottle shipment. Here is the New York Times Wine Club site. 

I think this is a natural area to build a community to create greater engagement with the Times. The new Darwin Editions™ could help here as the breaking news on the topics that interest the community could be presented through a focused edition in the same way that The Engine Mine uses the Darwin Awareness Engine™ to create its energy sector news site. 

According to Reuters, the New York Times also recently introduced a film club.  This service was created for “an audience passionate about movies,” according to the press release and you have to pay $100 a year to join. Here is another good placement for a Darwin Edition looking at what is going on in the movie industry.

Currently the Times offerings are advertised only in its printed newspaper or on its affiliated Web sites. These targeted Darwin Editions could provide a means to reach a specific audience. 

 

 

Comments

[hulme]

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