Topix.Com Homes in on Citizen Journalists

Apr 02, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By David Lieberman

NEW YORK -- People who want to know more about what's happening in their neighborhoods will have a new way to stay abreast of local news beginning today.

Seizing on growing interest in Internet-based "citizen journalism" -- stories and images posted by the public -- news site Topix.com will introduce an area where anyone can post or edit reports, commentary and photos about local happenings.

Site visitors can find the items about their locality by entering a ZIP code or town name into the site's search engine.

The users' material will supplement Topix's current service, which collects and posts news from 50,000 traditional newspapers and blogs.

"We're doing this in every ZIP code in the country," Topix founder Rich Skrenta says. "We see a big hunger for local news. Since Day 1 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?'"

Topix is financed partly by USA TODAY parent Gannett, McClatchy and Tribune, and it is testing partnerships with some existing newspapers.

The website, previously Topix.net, faces tough competition in its effort to be a nationally recognized source of local news. Internet giants including Google and Yahoo have local groups and forums that often include news. There are also at least 600 local news blogs.

"It's becoming a phenomenon," says JupiterResearch analyst Barry Parr, who has been briefed on Topix's plan.

Though he likes the plan, Parr says, Topix may have its hands full managing user contributions. The existing service gets "a ton of comments, and a lot of them are angry and kind of dumb."

Skrenta says it will be easy for users to complain about inappropriate material, and software will flag what Topix calls "heat language." Volunteers will monitor and edit community news.

"When somebody flags a comment for review in, say, Austin, these people will go take a look and make the call," Skrenta says. "It potentially might be escalated to our editorial team at Topix in Palo Alto (Calif.) It's very similar to the way (online encyclopedia) Wikipedia works."

Local businesses will be able to advertise on Topix via Google AdSense, an ad auction service that decides which ads appear based on key words on the page. For Topix, the words will be limited to town or community names.

"Google AdSense out of the box doesn't work well with news stories," Skrenta says. "There was a case where The New York Times had a story about a suitcase full of body parts that had washed ashore in New Jersey, and Google was showing luggage ads on the side. That's a disaster.

"But the worst thing of all is that nobody clicks on those ads." (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.