CITIZEN JOURNALISM ONWARD!

Here are a couple good articles on citizen journalism:

Traditional Media Adopts CitJ
Some news organizations are overcoming fears and opening up to citizen journalism.

CitJ's National Networks: Will They Bloom?
Entrepreneurs and media companies eye the opportunities.

Several players in the U.S. are currently working on building national networks of citJ Web sites, utilizing economies of scale to create a network of sites that can share infrastructure, advertising sales, editing functions and other efficiencies.

So far, it looks to be a race between entrepreneurs, eyeing citizen media as an eventual profit center, and traditional media companies, recognizing that citJ will eventually be an important component of their businesses.

A start-up company working on the citJ national-network model that's gotten a lot of press in the last year is Virginia-based Backfence. Late last year, the company secured $3 million in funding from venture capitalists, and it's currently ramping up to spread its brand of citJ "hyper-local news" Web sites across the U.S. At this writing, Backfence has only four sites operational, serving communities in the Washington, D.C., area: McLean, Arlington and Reston in Virginia and Bethesda, Md. (full article)