Markets

AllVoices Aims to Become Citizen Journalism Source for Media

By David Weir

Updated on: October 12, 2009 / 3:40 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

The citizen-journalism site AllVoices has launched a syndication service aimed at attracting professional journalists and publishers to leverage the content from its 150,000 contributors in 167 countries around the world.

"We want to become the citizen journalist site of choice, the "iReport" for the traditional media industry," says founder Amra Tareen.

"Globally, media are increasingly dependent on wire services like Reuters or AP for both their global and local content," notes Tareen. "Plus local is starting to disappear in some places. The only way to get enough of either -- global or local coverage -- going forward is by using citizen journalists."

Media partners can either buy a particular piece of content, which includes text reports, photos and video, on an exclusive basis, or they can use "a widget we're providing which lets partner pick and present specific stories and feeds for their sites on whatever subject interests them," a company spokesperson told me via email.

"Partners have total control over the content that appears on their sites," he continues. "These widgets also let partners solicit first had news accounts from their own audiences as well (engaging readership, engendering greater loyalty and making the outlet site more relevant when competing for breaking news against other social media tools and networks)."

While attempting to establish a foothold in the business of serving citizen reports to newspaper sites and other media companies, Tareen is also encouraging professional journalists to join a core of reporters already contributing stories to AllVoices.

"We know they cannot earn enough money from our original compensation model, because the incentives are not good enough. But now we will syndicate their content and share 75 percent of the syndication revenue with the journalists."

The company says that all of the content supplied to media partners by AllVoices is vetted by "a process that combines credibility-checking technology and community oversight to ensure high quality content."