In addition to front-page coverage of the flooding on June 25, www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk posted 33 breaking news updates within the first day, with 80 stories accumulating by the June 29.  Through the online comment system, readers could instantaneously alert news staff of badly hit areas.  The site posted three user videos of the flooding, and it took advantage of the 200 user-submitted photos to further cover the story in the print edition.

Usually, www.thisisgrimbsy.co.uk receives 3,000 daily users, but with readers utilizing the site as an information service, that number jumped to 10,468 on Monday, June 25.  In addition, the online coverage stimulated an increase in print sales of 3,700 copies. 

As this event exemplifies, newspapers have been recently been taking advantage of readers who are eager to aid in the news collecting process.  Whereas printed papers divide the reader and the reporter, online sites allow publishers to build reader networks, through which users can supplement the work of newspaper staffers. 

In April 2007, Spain’s El Pais launched a citizen journalism site, through which users can submit text, photo, and video to cover local, breaking news.  China’s National People’s Congress recently took steps towards similar reader participation by revising a proposed press law under which the media could only use government-authorized information in emergency coverage. Gannett news service encourages newspapers to provide users with unfiltered ways to participate in disaster coverage and communicate with each other. 

Source: Hold the Front Page