British entrants selected as finalists for journalism innovation prize

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Birmingham City University Journalism lecturer and media blogger Paul Bradshaw has been selected as a finalist for the Knight News Challenge , a competition based in the US to develop and fund innovations in online journalism.

Bradshaw (left), who writes at Online Journalism Blog

and is an occasional contributor to Journalism.co.uk , and former BBC journalist Nick Booth are the only UK based finalists in the competition.

Their joint entry, Citizen Investigation , is seeking $200,000 (£100,000) to fund a project that will identify stories readers want investigating, allow them to vote on a winner then pursue the story with help from professional journalists.

The final shortlist includes a second entry from Bradshaw and Booth where they are looking for $250,000 (£124,000) to fund The conversation toolkit , a series of plug-ins for websites to allow online news publishers to implement and arrange of social media tools around individual stories.

"Comparing this year's list with last year's winners shows that there's been a real quantum leap in thinking about news online, with many more imaginative proposals - and this bodes really well for journalism as a whole," Bradshaw told Journalism.co.uk.

"Unfortunately, the fact that we - and many others - applied to an American foundation highlights the need for similar funding in Britain.

"If UK publishers are serious about adapting for a new media world they should think - quickly - about setting up similar funds for innovative programs in the UK. The internet is a global market, with fewer barriers to international publishers creating products for UK markets. UK publishers need to wake up to that now."

The Knight Foundation runs the Knight News Challenge annually, allowing entrants to apply for grants of up to $5 million (£2.4m) for projects to stretch the boundaries of the news business.

Grant winners will be announced on 14 May at the Editor & Publisher Conference.