Poynter discussed the theory presented by Lisa Williams, who believes that sites like GlobalPost, Spot.Us and Huffington Post's Off the Bus could be the "first inklings" of a new kind of on-demand journalism. As news outlets realise that they cannot support the same number of foreign correspondents or beat reporters, they are looking of alternative ways to cover the important stories.

Williams highlighted the need to find a way to "make journalism happen where it's needed, when it's needed, and then redeploy elsewhere when things change." Poynter writer Amy Gahran elaborated on the idea of a "cadre of general assignment reporters, ready to work on whatever needed doing." It is essentially a development of the idea of stringers and freelancers, but she believes it could be an interesting complement to traditional news outlets, and takes it a step further, envisaging a situation where various kinds of organisations, not just news, could purchase reporting capacity.

The sites Williams mentions have made moves towards on-demand journalism. GlobalPost, whose content is available on its site and via syndication, is preparing to launch a premium service which will include an option for members to propose stories to its correspondents, which will then be considered by editors. Spot.Us is exploring citizen funded journalism, where stories about the San Francisco Bay area are both pitched and funded by readers. These are both still far from the idea of a group of reporters who are shared between a variety of organisations, but this has potential as a future business model in the struggling newspaper industry.

Source: Poynter, PlaceBlogger