The New York Times aims at boosting journalism through philanthropy

The New York Times believes that one of its executives Janet Elder would lead the newspaper’s efforts in seeking new philanthropic funding. Philanthropies already fund some of the newspaper’s investigations, but the publisher now aims to formalise philanthropy as a new revenue source.

While third-party funding may prove to be a significant complimentary source of revenue in the face of declining print advertising and online ad market dominated by Facebook and Google, The New York Times will have to build the operation carefully in order to guarantee editorial independence from funders. The New York Times’ announcement follows closely that by The Guardian.