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Jeff Jarvis runs an interesting commentary as organizations like The New York Times try to find ways to monetize their websites. Maybe hats and umbrellas like NPR for the NY Times?

I think he’s close but I don’t think tote bags are the answer.

Instead, let’s think for a moment about what The Travel Channel Academy is.. or could be.

Here we have people who have paid a great deal of money not just to receive world class video training, but also to become affiliated with The Travel Channel. As members of an elite club.

They not only learn how to create great videos for the channel, they also contribute them.

Well, maybe there is something here.

Certainly there is value in the channel to have a few thousand trained and educated folks with video cameras all over the world contributing content. There is value for the contributors, value for the channel and value for the viewers.

What we are really doing here is expanding the model of what a channel (or what a newspaper) can or should be.

Instead of a few producers of production companies offering their content (or a few writers or journalists or reporters), we are creating a model where many many more people contribute their content as well. It expands the value of the channel and expands the value of the content.

Think of this as Facebook… with focused content.  With valued content.

Suppose The New York Times had 10,000 ‘member/contributors’ around the world; member/contributors who paid to be trained and educated on what to contribute and how to do it.  For the members, it’s invaluable – and it creates revenue.

People might not pay to read the NY Times online, but I think they will pay to be ‘member/contributors’ of a different kind of NY Times. One that is far richer in content and scope.

It’s a model for journalism and content that is far more resonant with what the web does best – creates communities.

When it was expensive and sometimes difficult to send a journalist to Kenya, for example, there was a value to what they reported. But when the world is wired up and when there are hundreds of people in Kenya who have stories to offer, it is crazy not to shift the model to accommodate that potential.

But the process of reading the paper, or watching a channel should go beyond mere passive viewing.  It should be participatory.

Membership, as they used to say on the old American Express cards, has its privileges.