News site Topix.net will relaunch this with the lately acquired domain name Topix.com. Sensing the potential of online citizen journalism, Topix.com has now launched a new platform where anybody can post or edit reports, commentary and photos related to local happenings. The users will have just to enter the local ZIP code or the town name in the search option to get the local news.
The user generated content will sport the Topix’ existing service that puts news from 50,000 traditional newspapers and blogs. Topix founder Rich Skrenta said:
We’re doing this in every ZIP code in the country. We see a big hunger for local news. Since Day One of our existence, people have been sending us news, even though we had no place to put it. We have a (tech help) form, and people would type news into it like ‘Hey, did you hear about Coach Jackson?
Partially funded by Gannett, McClatchy and Tribune, Topix is now seeking partnerships with some running newspapers. As Google and Yahoo have their own forums for news, Topix is surely going to face stiff competition. Moreover, theer are roughly 600 news blogs.
Well, Rich Skrenta further said that it will be easy for Topix users to complain about inapt content and that software will flag what Topix calls “heat language.” Community news will be edited by the volunteers.
For advertising with Topix, local advertisers can use Google AdSense and the keyword in this case will be limited to the town or community names.
Via: usatoday
