US: innovative paper regularly features "contributing writers"

Posted by John Burke on February 7, 2006 at 10:01 AM

The Bakersfield Californian has been making headlines in new media for some time due to their innovative approach to reforming the newspaper. The local daily has even added a staff position to deal with some of these innovations; a Citizen Journalism editor. The blog Journalism Hope recently did an interview with the man that presently holds that position, Ray Hacke.

Here are some highlights:

Contributing writers: Instead of using the term "citizen journalist," the Californian decided on the more neutral term, "contributing writers," to describe participating readers. "...we wanted average readers - people who have little to no writing experience whatsoever - to feel like they could have a voice in our paper, too. The word "journalist" has some heavy connotations to it..."

Editing: Hacke explained that most articles are left pretty much the way they are received. He edits for grammar, punctuation and facts, but in the end, he wants "(contributing writers) to recognize their work as their own once it's in print and be proud of it."

Frequency: The paper is receiving articles from readers almost daily and has enough to run a "contributing writer" article five times a week.

What about print? The print edition carries an ad persuading readers to submit material with every "contributing writer" article, one of which has even made the front page. The website runs an ad "Your Words" that "displays the three top citizen journalism stories for the day and a special section for "Your Words" stories that's on another part of the Web site."

Source: Journalism Hope

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