Getting citizen journalists to show up for work
Via Mizzinformation:
The New York Times is launching a local blog network that will feature content from the paper’s editors but also rely on user-generated content from local readers. Jim Schachter, editor for digital initiatives at The New York Times, explained:
We expect to sell ads to local merchants using our telesales and self-serve ad solution. Our two pilot sites are staffed with full-time NYTimes reporters. That’s not cheap. Obviously, it’s also not a sustainable model.
But the thing is (via the same blog):
… wait a minute–most of these posts are by one person–Andy Newman. Citizen journalist? Hardly–he’s a NYT reporter. Yes, the local is supposed to be a mix of local bloggers overseen by a NYT reporter–but come on.
User generated content is all the rage, and it should be. Good content about things that matter, created by the people it matters to — GREAT idea. The problem is finding the citizen journalists in the first place. Chances are the people that you want citizen journal-ing on your site are already maintaining their own blogs and probably don’t want to do their work twice.
Aggregation seems a better solution. Of course, the big M word always comes up: how do you monetize other people’s content, especially when you aren’t paying them for it? It’s a question nobody has really figured out an answer for.