Crowdsourcing involves taking functions traditionally performed by employees and using the internet to outsource them to an undefined, generally large group of people. The compensation is usually far less than what an employee might make for performing the same service.

Gannett will be restructuring and turning to crowdsourcing, Wired has learned.   Well-known examples include Wikipedia and iStockphoto. 

What’s interesting to note is that citizen journalism came into the spotlight this year, but if traditional publishers/newspaper companies can tap into the trend they might be the ones to benefit most.  I’ve always stressed that newspaper companies could dominate pretty quickly if they view themselves as information/news companies first and tree-cutting, paper printing, ink using machines second.

For that click here. 
For an example of how fast news companies can catch up digital ones, click here.

As per Gannett, I am not sure crowdsourcing works as well as it could when it’s for a major, for-profit organization.  It works for non-profits (Wikipedia) or startups, but for Gannett to come out (or any staple of the now-bleeding literati) and turn to the people… it’s just not very convincing, but I could be wrong. 

Read more on Gannett’s initiative here.

• Digg this Blog
• Share on Facebook
• WatchMojo on Twitter
• WatchMojo on YouTube
• Add to Favorites
• WatchMojo Newsletter