Six Apart, the blogging company that created Movable Type and TypePad, has now created the TypePad Journalist Bailout Program, designed to help “recently-laid-off or fearful-of-layoffs” journalists, the company announced on its TypePad Web site.

Although nothing can replace a full-time job with benefits, the programme helps journalists set up their own sites, in which they receive a free TypePad Pro blog account, are enrolled in the Six Apart Media advertising programme, their sites are promoted on Blogs.com, and more, such as a programme to help drive traffic to their sites.

“The TypePad Journalist Bailout Program is FREE. But unlike the Fed's financial bailout, this program will actually end soon. Just send us the link to your last piece for a newspaper, magazine or broadcast journalism venue to bailout@sixapart.com, and we'll take care of the rest,” the announcement on TypePad states. “We're offering a platform to publish your work and profit from it. A platform that gives you complete control, with no dependence on the whims of a publisher, and no interference from an outside editor.”

A TypePad subscription usually comes out to more than US$150 a year.

The new blog will be an online place for journalists to store their work, as well as show up as the first result in a Google search for the journalist's name, TypePad promises.

As of Tuesday, Six Apart reported that “hundreds” of journalists have already signed up for the service, which was posted over the weekend.

“The TypePad Journalist Bailout Program is not a silver bullet. It's not going to singlehandedly preserve the career and income of every working journalist who has a job today. And frankly, the response has been so overwhelming that we won't be able to accept every application at first, states Six Apart's Anil Dash. “The Journalist Bailout program exists because we care about the future of journalism at Six Apart ... A lot of people are thinking about how journalism is going to evolve online, and many people are passionate about making sure journalists make the leap.”

Dash added that criteria for membership of the programme will be expanded to include everyone that has applied.