Nieman Foundation at Harvard
An interesting move from last week: National Journal is getting into the database business. The company’s launching a new Document Library, a service that will feature research, white papers, testimony, press releases, and other information that might be useful to people who do business in Washington.
The service will be free to subscribers (with non-subscribers getting a limited version) and will be sourced from government agencies, think tanks, trade groups, and universities. It’s a smart move, similar to other media companies that have tried to leverage data or primary documents as an advantage and possible revenue source. Here’s National Journal president Bruce Gottlieb explaining the library to Folio:
“A big part of their [members and subscribers] job is staying on top of information,” he says. “In many cases the source material is just as useful as a write up. What this allows us to do is give people one place to access a direct source in order to stay on top of fast moving, complicated information.”
