Publish and be praised?

Journalism graduates and new reporters struggling to get a foothold in the media industry can now publish their work on a new UK-based web site.

Greatreporter.com was launched last week (May 2003) by Richard Powell, a 24-year-old journalist and would-be entrepreneur. Veteran BBC journalist John Simpson has endorsed the new site, which aims to be both a quality news portal and a platform for new journalists to promote their work.

Speaking to dotJournalism, Mr Powell explained that the Internet is the ideal format for the project. "It's much less trouble than print. It will give us time to try out formats and ideas without costing the earth."

The site features mainly politics and social affairs issues and is open to reporters from anywhere in the world. Articles are sent via an online submission form and edited by Mr Powell before being published. Readers and news publishers across the globe can then access the work.

However, the site will not pay contributors unless the work is sold on to a third party, in which case a commission of 35 per cent will be taken. Despite concerns that the work could be easily copied and published without the author's consent, Mr Powell told dotJournalism that he is confident the system will work.

"I've been working with web-based businesses for two years and I'm very aware of the copyright issues involved. There are only a limited number of sites that might use this material so I feel sure that we will be able to keep track of published work and claim payment for the authors."

Mr Powell, who also runs the media services company Presswire, is currently negotiating with a national UK newspaper to supply regular content. This would mean that writers would receive a reliable income through the Great Reporter site.

Ultimately, Mr Powell hopes that the site will operate both as an online newspaper and news agency, proving to be a profitable business model for web journalism. "The site is only one week old so I am still gauging the response. But once broadband is more extensive, I'd like the site to run as a news station. I want people to tune in and watch the site."

Sources:
http://www.greatreporter.com
http://www.presswire.co.uk

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