Yahoo and Reuters launch the latest citizen journalism experiment, but will users bite?
The New York Times is reporting that Yahoo and Reuters have gone into partnership in a push to get "the public" to submit their newsworthy photos and videos for inclusion on Yahoo news, and throughout the Reuters network.
From the NYT report:
Starting tomorrow, users will be able to upload photos and videos to a section of Yahoo called You Witness News. All of the submissions will appear on Flickr or a similar site for video. Editors at both Reuters and Yahoo will review the submissions and select some to place on pages with relevant news articles, just as professional photographs and video clips are woven into their news sites today.
It's an ambitious attempt by two media giants to find a formula for so-called citizen journalism that actually works. The challenge for Yahoo will be to get enough users to submit relevant and usable content - a problem it knows all too well after a failed effort to partner with Al Gore's Current TV.
Users whose content is selected for use on Yahoo news and Reuters' own site won't be financially compensated - it's only if the image or video is sold on to one of Reuters' customers, that they'll see any cash. All of which begs the question as to why anybody would bother going to down the Yahoo/Reuters route with regards to video, when we already have the number one destination in YouTube?
"The average person witnesses something that is considered news once every 10 years," said Steve Rosenbaum, who created MTV Unfiltered, one of the first viewer-contributed video programs on television. "When it’s time to put something on the Internet, they will put it in the place they have used before. The numbers tell us that is YouTube."
Looking to be paid? You could always use one of the numerous revenue-sharing video sites such as Revver or why not try the BBC? Or if you really have captured a "once every ten years" exclusive, it might be best to approach any number of media outlets direct, and negotiate your own licensing deals.