Sunrise
A local platform for citizen journalism
Everyone thinks citizen journalism is a dream. It’s a wonderful idea, but the consensus is that it is difficult to make a profit. Sure, it is. I want to take up this challenge.
My business plan is simple. A citizen reporter sends an article to a professional editor, who edits it and posts it on the news site. Citizen reporters pay a registration fee and, for each article, an editing fee based on how much time the editing takes. If the article attracts many readers, the citizen reporter is paid a fee according to a point evaluation system. The citizen reporter also evaluates whether the editor made the appropriate edits on a five-star system. As on Uber, the citizen reporter and the editor rate each other.
The important thing is to establish a two-way mechanism that provides useful information for citizens’ lives while establishing a profit model. I want to create a news platform that promotes citizen autonomy. That’s why I am introducing Sunrise.
I have worked for one of the biggest newspaper companies in Japan for almost 17 years. I spent 15 years in the business department, advertising sales — and two years as a reporter. When I joined the newspaper company, I didn’t expect the newspaper environment to change so much. Now, as we all know, the business model for most newspapers is in crisis. But of course the crisis is also an opportunity. If we have good communication with our readers, the company will thrive. If we don’t, the company will not survive.
About eight years ago I was a reporter who mainly wrote news and town information on Kobe City in the middle of the Japanese archipelago (famous for Kobe beef). At that time, it was becoming common for newspaper reporters to share information and pictures via SMS or SNS even before they arrived at the scene of a news event. I started thinking about the way news is delivered. After that, I entered graduate school at night in urban public policy. There I met some very nice classmates — employees of cities and towns, representatives of NGOs and NPOs — who had come to study to further enhance their specialties.
And they wrote very wonderful theses. Unlike articles written on deadline crammed with superficial information, their papers were backed by experience.
From my experience as a local reporter and a graduate student, I felt that the time was ripening for news delivered by citizen reporters or contributors. Even many ordinary citizens can write wonderful articles objectively and accurately, backed up by experience in their fields. In addition, we are now living in an era when people can share news instantly on mobile devices. But they had no platform to do so.
So I want to set up a news network platform for citizen reporters. That is why I have come to CUNY’s entrepreneurial journalism program.
I call the platform Sunrise. The information everyone has been longing for is finally rising like the sun. I want it to be like a morning sun shining on the city and its problems. Likewise, I want to organize an event that supports such a place. I hear voices wanting to understand local news in more detail. We cannot live without local information — for example, if a car accident is tying up traffic near your house.
Even people who have been watching local events and festivals from a distance will be connected to neighbors through information-sharing. As the sun rises fairly over each person, shedding light on topics that are hidden in the city, the stories spun out from there can change society. I want Sunrise to be such a platform to the extent possible.
I know what you’re thinking: In an age when “information wants to be free,” do I dare charge citizen reporters a registration fee and an editing fee?
In articles and posts on blogs, Facebook and Twitter, many questions remain about objectivity and accuracy. Therefore, a professional editor turns the citizen reporter’s article into a professional product. However, this editing work is very hard. At first, editors may have to teach citizen reporters the ABCs. In consideration of that effort, we charge an editing fee. I consider editing manuscripts a service, in the same way language translation is a business service. While my platform is a mechanism to evaluate posted articles, editors are in turn evaluated by the citizen reporters as to whether the editing was valuable or not. That’s a useful tension.
I would like to implement this mechanism initially in a very small area. I am discussing the essence of journalism with our professors and colleagues at CUNY, and also with Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, authors of “The Elements of Journalism,” who wrote: “The primary purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing.” In other words, it is to provide citizens with information on their freedom, necessary to their autonomy. I believe the provider can be a citizen reporter. Information citizens need is reported quickly because citizens themselves are on the scene even during extreme weather, disasters and events. I want this platform to build the information necessary to citizen autonomy.
Our department chief, Jeff Jarvis, says “journalism is a service industry.” I agree. After all, it is meaningless without good articles, and it is meaningless unless those articles are read. In the future, I think the probability that articles will be read will depend on how well a relationship with readers can be made. In my model, citizen reporters will be both readers and reporters. In the process, how much useful information can be offered on an individual basis? If we build a better relationship, won’t the reader read a specific site’s articles consistently? Nowadays information is sent rapidly from mobile devices, and it’s overwhelming. That leads readers to acquire a lot of information on their own.
Citizen journalism was discussed several years ago, and I know that its business model is also tough. Most citizen journalism will survive as Non-profit organizations with donations or investments. In Japan, business models that charge subscription fees are popular in niche markets, and they are profitable.
I would like to make this business model a public space. I would like the citizen reporter platform to play the role of “community organizer” or “community collaborator,” as taught by Jeff Jarvis.
This role is to help the community through information. If too much emphasis is placed on making a profit, the public spirit may be lost.
Furthermore, I have found that a successful, profitable model has not yet been established to make the project sustainable.
So I thought of the citizen reporter’s registration fee and the article editing fee. I want to keep the editing fee low, basing it on the number of words in an article and the time the editor spends on it. On the other hand, if articles are good enough to be posted, I think this would become a sustainable business model that could pay a manuscript fee to the citizen reporter. And I think this service model could make articles objective and accurate.
Now, help me make this business model more concrete.
1. What do you think about the registration fee and article editing fee?
2. How much should contributors pay, if anything, per month or manuscript?3. What do you think of this business model?
4. Do you know similar business models?
If you can answer these questions, I would greatly appreciate if you could send your opinions quickly to ayuzawa0427@gmail.com.
Thank you.
