crowdsourcing

This post has been updated.  

There I was, about to round up the blogosphere's reactions to the announcement that the Gannett newspaper company is shifting to a 24-hour news cycle and restructuring its 89 local newsrooms as "Information Centers." (A citizen journalism initiative comes along with the shift, as Innovations in Newspapers pointed out. Gannett also publishes USA Today.)

And then I see that Wired's Jeff Howe, who wrote the article ("Gannett to Crowdsource News") in the first place, has started a pretty thorough list compendium of blog posts on his Crowdsourcing blog, which he breaks down into Pros and Cons.

Howe found that while several bloggers supported the investment in new platforms and approaches to news, just as many remained suspicious of Gannett's motives and skeptical of the results. 

Since some of my usual suspects — Editors Weblog, which breaks down Gannett's seven-desk plan, Dan Gillmor at CitMedia and of course Jeff Jarvis' BuzzMachine — are already in Howe's working compendium, here are some more reactions:

Mathew Ingram: "Gannett is trying to find a different way, and they should get some props for doing so" (Post includes later updates, and Ingram later refers back to Howe again for more on "crowdsourcing.")

Steve Yelvington: "It's role shift time. This is about engagement, convening community, utility, and thinking big about small. The "what" and not just the "when" and "how.""

Martin Stabe (Fleet Street 2.0/Press Gazette):  "The most interesting aspect of Gannett’s venture, though, its its ambition to harness “crowdsourcing” to distribute complex investigations among volunteers in the community. Nobody wants to read long investigative stories online, Gannett found, so rather than presenting investigations as a final, polished outcome, papers invited its readers to become part of the investigative process."

Steve Yahn (Editor & Publisher): "It took a few minutes, but after first reading that Gannett Co., Inc. plans to “transform” its newspapers into 24-hour Information Centers, I realized why I was experiencing déjà vu all over again. What it reminded me of was how Gannett ran a nearly 24-hour operation in Rockford, Illinois, well before the Web — 35 years ago."

Andrew Grant-Adamson: "Not sure that I like the new names for the desks but “crowdsourcing” has a ring to it"

Poynter's E-Media Tidbits interviewed Jennifer Carroll, vice president of new media content for Gannett's newspaper division, who commented on the hyperlocal aspect: "We hope that our audience will see and find many ways of connecting with us, no matter what the platform: working mothers and blogs, Little Leaguers with photos, disenfranchised citizens who want to speak out about their government. We want to find new ways of understanding and being involved."

Later (or rather, more recently), both E-Media Tidbits and Howe pointed to "crowdsourcing in action" via the Cincinnati Enquirer's online feature for the midterm elections (now finished). Howe:

Never mind the debate over whether Gannett's plan will or will not work. The Cincinnati Enquirer has put up a page through which readers can report any voting problems occurring in their precincts. Twenty-five instances of irregularities have already emerged, each mapped out using an embedded Google Map on the Enquirer site. An Enquirer reporter dashed off this note about the effect: "Look at these citizen reports ..and breaking news amid….reporter and photog threatened with arrest….Congressman sent home to get proper i.d. Crowdsourcing rocks."

Also on Poynter, one of Jim Romenesko's readers suggested a "Do-Over Day" in journalism, which Romenesko links with the same post that impressed Howe — Steve Fox's entry at NewAssignment.net:   

Gannett intends to crowdsource its way into the future, giving Power to the People. "Here's a simpler idea," says John Walter. "Let's have a Do-Over Day. Let's rescind the day that, a couple of decades back, in the name of safety, we stationed security guards in front of the lobby elevators, and, in the name of economy, cut out the telephone operators and handed our public over to voice mail." || Steve Fox on Gannett's Information Center: "What really gets me jazzed is that this innovation is focused on — take a deep breath — the journalism."

Deep breaths all around?

UPDATE: Thanks for the comment and the link, Jeff. Glad I was able to help — that's the idea, right?