A Chicago News Site will start to pay citizen journalists. Is this still considered citizen journalism?
Hyper-Local Chicago News Site to Pay ‘Citizen Journalists’
NEW YORK With ChiTownDailyNews.org, former Chicago Tribune staffer Geoff Dougherty is going where few so-called “citizen journalism” practitioners have dared to tread: he’s offering to pay his amateur news reporters a regular stipend.
The standard $25 contributor reimbursement ($100 goes to the writer with the most-viewed story of the month) is certainly not a king’s ransom, but it marks a distinct contrast from the majority of citizen journalism sites that have sprung up over the past year or two.
Dougherty, 35, aims to use these citizen contributors to cover the type of “hyper-local” neighborhood news he said is not being offered by the Tribune and the Sun-Times, Chicago’s big daily papers.
