Do you want to be a reporter and are you willing to work for free? The Beacon Journal apparently is looking for you. Column one of page A2 on Monday has two almost identical word for word promos that say you can get your story online. One is headlined "Your Stories" and the other is under an Ohio.com kicker headlined "Community Publishing."
A quick check of the UPublish section of Ohio.com shows a smattering of items submitted by community journalists. The lead item when I logged on was something about an Art Museum exhibit. I signed off in the first sentence when I read Night Foundation which apparently referred to the Knight Foundation. Woe is me.
This can be a source of unsolicited information, a way for clubs to publish their information without the BJ needing manpower to answer the calls.
ReplyDeleteBut it also can be the target of mischievous miscreants. False events, for example. Maybe even false "weddings," which happened in the Fairmont, WV, newspaper only this one was submitted manually on the printed wedding form. Turns out the former Miss West Virginia was the target of a "joke."
How long do you think obscene postings will remain before someone from the BJ comes along to delete it?
You get the idea.
I know that the TV stations are also letting folks be free reporters via videos, too. This will bite both TV and newspapers on the butt from time to time.
But newspapers are desperate to get people to read the print items, and to feel connected to the BJ, online or on print. So I guess it's worth a shot, as long as someone at the BJ takes it for what it's worth, and with a suspicious eye on every item to separate the real from the joke stuff.