Following the popularity yesterday of the news article on this research, Editors Weblog has summed up the main elements of the survey.

The survey

The report starts with the statement ‘If 2004 was the year of the blog, 2005 and 2006 were the years the hyperlocal citizen media movement exploded.’ It explains that ‘early sites solicited whatever users would contribute in the way of neighborhood news, calendar announcements, eyewitness accounts and audio and video of breaking events and public meetings, musings, testimonials, discussion threads and especially photos. Many citizens were prose-shy but would post images, site operators quickly observed. Some pioneers, such as former CBS newsman Gordon Joseloff of WestportNow.com, grafted citizen contributions and comments on to a spine of original reporting.’

The report is based on ‘in-depth interviews in the summer of 2006 with founders, owners or operators of a diverse group of 31 citizen media sites. 191 participants responded to most or all of our 60 questions.’

Background to Citizen Journalism

Many believe that ‘citizen journalism is emerging as a form of “bridge” media, linking traditional forms of journalism with classic civic participation.’

The report confirms many opinions that citizen journalism sites are likely to be sustainable as a whole with a maximum of a few per city. When asked what they found valuable about the citizen media sites they read, 82% of the survey respondents said they provide local information not found elsewhere; 77% said the sites supplement what local media can provide; 74% said the sites build connections to the community.

Regarding competition, there were obvious links to daily newspapers in terms of ownership and coverage. Just under half of respondents cited daily and/or weekly newspapers as competition.

There are no rules to citizen journalism sites. They range from community co-operatives, trained citizen journalism sites, professional not-for-profit to professional for-profit sites. In fact, there are now so many blogs and types of blog that there are blog aggregator sites.

The common traits of the citizen journalism sites appear to be four-fold:
1. All ‘draw from the community brain”
2. Citizen contributions tend to be short – citizen journalism sites rarely entice entire articles and even more rarely regular columnists.
3. Contributors write about issues that are important to them, which they want to bring other peoples attention to.
4. Contributions from citizens often mirror the type of content what is already on the site.

There are many questions about what should or should not be edited within a citizen journalism site. Most take out abusive comments - half (50% of 131 replies) said offensive or inappropriate content was filtered out before posting. Most respondents (66% of 119 replies) said their sites removed offensive or inappropriate content after it was posted.


Building Interest in the site

When starting a new citizen journalism website, consider local demographics. It’s essential to get out into the community. No-one can expect users to start contributing without a gentle nudge. Users have to know its there and see what kind of content there is before they want to contribute.

As posters mirror content, it’s vital to get the content up there to start with. Regular posting from one source will attract others into the site. Many sites see a drop off from contributors as soon as the postings stop. It takes a small number of people regularly posting to keep the site vibrant. But it’s essential to have that core group and new starters must be patient.
‘The important lesson, say site operators, is to understand that building content and marketing sites are intertwined routes to the same goal: Making sites essential gathering places where communities can debate, call out government or local media, or find a neighbor who also collects Mustangs.’

‘At sites where editors have weekly gigs discussing local events on TV or radio (as in Brattleboro and San Diego), these on-air promotions prompt more postings. Citizens who become regular posters start promoting the site to friends and networks.’

Also, owners recommend giving feedback such as thanking new posters and having lunches/drinks with regular posters.

Marketing and making money appear to be the two biggest issues for citizen journalist sites.

Below are some examples given in the report of ‘how to (and How not to) Build Interest’

• Bluffton Today has a combination reporter/editor who leads the online conversation and blogs heavily in search of responses (which are counted). She regularly blogs about stories the newspaper staff is reporting, and asks for input. She also recruits quasi-expert local bloggers who are paid small fees to converse and advise on subjects of passionate local interest, including gardening.

• Wicked Local launched with a direct mail campaign, sending postcards to instruct Plymouth residents on how to get involved with the site.

• The Daily Camera in Boulder tried citizen assignments. Before a popular balloon festival, the paper ran an ad asking readers to submit pictures, journals and diaries from the event to MyTown.DailyCamera. Not many sent journals, but pictures arrived by the hundreds, said managing editor Kevin Kaufman. The call for pictures was successful enough to expand to other events, including Mother’s Day.

• The Forum, in Deerfield, New Hampshire, hosted an open house to court volunteer editors and encourage more citizens to post what they see and hear in their neighborhoods. And one of its volunteers has started a creative writing class at the local library.

• Chi-Town Daily News hosted a club showcase for local bands as both a fundraiser and a site promotion.

• Baristanet created a float for the Montclair Fourth of July parade.

• Backfence advertised an incentive plan; a community member who posted five items got a free coffee card. “People got angry and said, ‘This seems to commercialize the whole thing,’ “ co-founder Mark Potts said. “We just knocked it off the site because people were violently opposed to it.”

• Many sites post how-to-use tutorials. Lisa Williams of H2otown goes a step further and keeps an eye on the server log. She e-mails instructions to people who are “wandering around in circles.”

• Madison Commons hosts “boot camp” journalism training sessions that trained 50 citizens of mostly minority neighborhoods its first year, but only a handful of grads have become regular posters.

• Greensboro101‘s Roch Smith steers bloggers he knows to topics that might be worthy of investigation and citizen reporting. At Smith’s suggestion one blogger found interesting fodder in the campaign reports of a Congressional candidate. Smith blogs selectively so as not to big-foot the site and make it feel like his personal sounding board.

• Your Hub partnered with professional sports teams the Broncos, the Avalanche and the Nuggets, setting up fan forums on the site, giving away tickets in contests, publishing special fan sections of the print edition and flashing the “Your Hub” name around the stadiums. It also made friends with Wal-Mart. “Wal-Mart wants to become community-oriented,” Travis Henry points out. YourHub calendar items are now broadcast on Wal-Mart checkout aisle monitors. “Community events show up on screen with our brand name next to them.”

Making Money

Most blogs are run on ‘shoe strings’ with success driven out of passion. It appears that payment to staff from profits is fairly recent.

For those sites that are generating some revenues, advertising is the primary source for 48% of the respondents; community and corporate sponsors generate revenue for 25%; individual donors for 16%; and grants for almost 11%.  Fewer than 5% rely on subscription income.
 

 

Financial Aspects of Blogs are summed up well in the report using several bar graphs:
 



Charting Success

“They [hyperlocal sites] pay scant attention to numbers of unique visitors, page views or return on investment. And while more revenue would be nice - especially if the sites could make even token payments to their contributors - it is not essential.”
Success is, of course, subjective. “If people read/comment and talk about us, we’re succeeding,” said one respondent. Said another: “There is no success, there is no failure - there is only the process. If people find something they did not realize before - great.  If not, it happens.”

For others, success markers include:
    * “… Helping our members make more informed decisions as citizens.
    * “… Having a public impact on issues
    * “… Challenging traditional media to improve.
    * “… Motivating citizens to pay attention
    * “… Making a difference
    * “… When we’re no longer referred to as a ‘blog.’
   
Here are a few figures in the report relating to success:
73%, of the survey respondents, pronounced their sites to be a ‘success,’ based largely on the impact in their communities.
82% said they provided opportunities for dialogue.
61% said they watchdogged local government.
39% said they helped the community solve problems.
27% said they increased voter turnout
17% said they increased the number of candidates running for office


On Traditional Media Companies

The report states that ‘the stakes hardly need to be stated for old media companies that have launched citizen ventures as facets of their online and print or broadcast ventures. Old media companies have their own definitions of success. Some are looking to citizen contributions to offset losses in editorial staff; others are trying to build community as a way of keeping interest alive in local coverage; others are primarily concerned about preserving or expanding market share among both consumers and advertisers. All are trying to establish interactive relationships with the people once referred to as readers or audiences, and to find formulas for online advertising profitability.’

‘Bluffton Today architect Steve Yelvington, however, cautions old media companies not to enter the citizen journalism arena just for business reasons. “The most important thing is to keep your eye on the ball - the community process and building a strong community. If you do this for the wrong reasons (to build site traffic or raise circulation), you’ll have the wrong impact ... If [people] spend all their time watching TV, if they don’t talk to their neighbors, if they don’t really live there, they don’t care about the things that are likely to be in the newspaper and they’re never going to read it.’


The Future

We asked our survey respondents how long they would continue participating in their site: 81% skipped over 1, 2 and 3 to 4 years, and even bypassed “until resources run out.” They said they would stick with their sites “indefinitely.”

Source: J-Lab report