"20 million editors" became 400
Netzeitung, an online newspaper in Germany, started its citizen journalsim project “The Readers Edition” in June 2006. When announcing the project, they called out for “20 million editors”. What they got was around 400 regulars. Which is probably for the better – with 20 million people the content would be much harder to grasp.
The numbers come from NewAssignment, where joha also writes:
With Germany’s biggest online presence, Spiegel Online making money, German publishers have figured out that the Web is here to stay. But citizen journalism has been slow to catch on and some of the hesitancy may be cultural.
“Germany’s civil society is not very familiar with the idea of one feeling entitled to publicly articulate himself,” said Christoph Neuberger, from the university of Muenster, “and journalism in Germany is always reproached with seeing its audience more like objects of influence than as responsible individuals that just want to inform themselves.”
Interestingly enough the Reader’s Edition uses WordPress. (I’ve been looking at different CMSs for a hobby project lately, hence my interest. Right now I’m leaning towards Drupal. But WordPress is still an option.)
Readers Edition is also ‘leaning’ towards Drupal …