US blog network Creative Weblogging has released version 2.0 of its citizen media site Creative Reporter.

More than 1,000 web users have signed up with creative-reporter.com submitting 1,500 news articles since the site first launched six months ago. The publishing platform is designed for web users that don't want to maintain an individual blog.

Creative Reporter invites users to register for free and submit articles. When more than 30 readers recommend the piece, or if another Creative Weblogging member blogs the piece directly, the piece is re-published on at least one of the 65 specialist blogs published by Creative Weblogging.

Bloggers are paid $6 for every published article.

Titles cover areas including social networking, digital TV and Web 2.0 and, as with an increasing number of interactive media sites, users are invited to vote to recommend posts and links. Bloggers can use desktop blogging tools such as Ecto to contribute to the site.

"We are committed to making citizen journalism work," said Torsten Jacobi, CEO of Creative Weblogging.

"After seeing so many failed attempts we feel Creative Reporter can add a useful new mechanism on how users collaboratively work on great content."