Hearst to use citizen journalists

The Boston Business Journal reports that Hearst Corp. has struck a deal with Helium Inc., an online writing community.
Helium will provide local and lifestyle stories written by its citizen journalists to the Hearst Newspapers chain. Hearst says the deal allows their newspapers to have local content at a lower cost than using staff resources.

"The deal gives the newspaper publishing arm of New York-based Hearst Corp. access to Andover, Mass.-based Helium’s marketplace of freelance writers. The marketplace enables Hearst to essentially put out to bid stories for competition on a range of topics. Freelance writers can submit content through the site, and Hearst then chooses the best stories and compensates the writers."

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