New York Times writer selling column on the blockchain

New York Times tech writer Kevin Roose announced Wednesday that he’s selling his latest column on the blockchain.

“Normally, I’m not allowed to make sales pitches in my columns,” Roose wrote in his Times column published at noon Wednesday. “But this time is an exception, because what’s for sale is the column itself.”

Roose’s column is being sold in an online auction as an NFT, or nonfungible token. 

“This is my first experiment — a column about NFTs that is, itself, being turned into an NFT and put up for auction,” he wrote.

NFTs are connected to unique pieces of software code that ensure an unalterable record of their provenance is stored on the blockchain, the distributed ledger technology that forms the basis for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. 

Whoever purchases an NFT can point to the technology as proof that they are the owner of the original item referred to in the NFT code.

On March 22, the very first tweet posted on Twitter by its CEO Jack Dorsey was auctioned off as an NFT for $2,915,835.47, two weeks after it was listed for sale. A digital artist known as Beeple has sold artwork via NFT, for millions of dollars.

Separately, The New York Times recently formed a new committee to review the outside work of its journalists to ensure those efforts don’t conflict with or distract from their jobs.

“The committee will primarily review outside projects that have the potential to be competitive with our journalism and business, could conflict with or distract from your work or The Times, involve payment or could be covered in any other way by the policies defined by the Ethical Journalism Handbook,” the Times said in a recent memo to staff obtained by The Hill.