The New York Times, which had 40,080 daily subscribers in the Bay Area and 57,514 on Sunday, has picked up 1,000 more after introducing its Bay Area section, NYT Editor of Digital Initiatives Jim Schacter told a group of local journos on Tuesday.

Schacter also spoke about the concern raised on blogs that the NYT is looking to turn Berkeley j-school students into unpaid reporters. He said the NYT’s deal will be with the Bay Area News Project (the nonprofit funded by Wells Fargo heir F. Warren Hellman), and the project will decide how contributors are paid.