In his column on Editor & Publisher Online, Mr Outing explores the key issues raised by participatory journalism and details sites that have successfully incorporated 'micro local news' into their online publications.
He suggests integrating news written by readers, citing Northwest Voice, a reader-led news site run alongside the newspaper site.
Expanding on his ideas, Mr Outing says that identifying a topical and geographical niche for the site may also be a way to build a focused reader base.
Editors, he says, should also encourage quality submissions by sharing key journalistic guidelines.
"If I'm right, then mainstream news site managers should be thinking about how to integrate the best of citizen journalism into their organisations," writes Mr Outing.
"Citizen journalism really isn't all that new - it's just in a different form today thanks to the Internet."
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Q&A: Steve Outing, senior editor at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies
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