Last month, Mecom-owned Drammens Tidende (DT) invited its readers to help them cover this year's World Cup Ski Sprint, but DT discovered that local readers seemed to be more interested in the Children's Ski Cup, submitting pictures of their own children instead of the professional skiiers. (First photo shown is reader submitted while second one is a pro-snap, both from DT.)

"The traffic to our news site doubled on the day of the World Cup, and the shots submitted by readers garnered quite some interest, but people were particularly interested in viewing and submitting pictures from the Children's Cup," said Geir Arne Bore, Editor-in-Chief of DT.

Readers can upload text, pictures, and videos onto the online portal The Reader's Newspaper, (still in Beta version) which was developed by Edda Media, Mecom's Norwegian branch. As of now, DT, an early tester for the portal, finds that their readers have mostly uploaded text and pictures about entertainment events, while another early tester Budstikka.no's readers are more involved in local sports events.

Over the upcoming months, all of Edda Media's regional and local papers are expected to have access to the portal.

"Our experiences confirm the general impression which is taking root in Norwegian media: user generated content does not come unsolicited, and if it does come it is on issues people are very passionate about, or as a result of substantial marketing," said Bore. "I guess you could say this in line with the trend described in The State of the News Media 2008."

Source: Journalism.co.uk