Readers Club

We’ve known for nine months that an equivalent to The Times’ Times+ has been coming, but now it’s gone to market with a scheme it’s calling Guardian Extra, run by the paper’s former digital-edition product manager Richard J. Thompson as head of membership.

£25-a-year, or free with an annual print subscription (starting from £22.43 a month), it’s rather like Times+, wrapping up a selection of Guardian partnerships to offer members access and favourable rates to live events, “background briefings” and a range of other exclusive-type offerings.

But The Guardian is looking to make a big brand play to its most loyal readers, right down to giving readers access to its own premises and staff, not just a series of offers or vouchers. From the announcement; “Extra members will be given unprecedented access to the Guardian/Observer’s multi-award winning offices in Kings Place, with special access to the papers’ Editors, newsroom visits, plus interviews and events involving some of our most respected and senior journalists.”

Thompson: “Extra will be different from traditional newspaper membership schemes in that events and activities will be truly reflective of the Guardian and The Observer’s editorial coverage. It will provide us with a unique opportunity to explore many areas of mutual interest. It is about strengthening our most important relationship, our readership, and in turn providing a range of benefits that they wouldn’t get elsewhere.

“There will also be a dedicated Extra section in both The Guardian and The Observer each week.”

Right now, membership is a free trial until August 31. Sign-up is via the same membership database that Guardian.co.uk already operated, now looking a bit long in the tooth.

The £25 pricepoint is significantly smaller than the £50 and £100 which were being user-tested last year. The paper will no doubt need to avoid the possibility that vested interests could pay to attend its editorial meetings and meet its reporters.

Open Platform

Matt McAlister has been building out Guardian.co.uk’s developer initiative since joining in 2008; now he’s also going to have to find some money in it.

GNM’s commercial director Adam Freeman today gave the initiative a “commercial launch” - pitching it to ad agencies and other commercial partners for its use in “commercial projects”.

The thinking seems to be that Guardian.co.uk’s range of API services might help brands communicate their message - but likely as part of a cross-media sell. By means of an incentive, Freeman says he’ll throw in advertising space worth £50,000 across GNM to the next commercial Open Platform project, as long as the buyer stumps up £100,000.

As a flagship, GNM is touting Open Platform’s recent powering of an Enjoy England campaign, in which the tourism agency placed readers’ reviews of leisure activities on a map of England.

Two out of three access levels let partners keep all of any revenue earned, but a third “offers various revenue sharing deals through sponsorship, licensing and other commercial formats, according to Guardian.co.uk.

Disclosure: Our publisher ContentNext is a wholly owned subsidiary of Guardian News & Media.