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OhMyNews to contributors: Show Me the Money

by Actual News Geezer | July 8, 2009 at 02:44 pm

334 views | 55 Recommendations | 5 comments

Korean-based citizen journalism site OhMyNews has asked its 100,000 contributors to pony up some hard cash, not just more stories, a blog on Forbes has just reported.

The posting comes from PlanetSizedBrain, a Korean-based blog dealing with technology issues.

A more in-depth version of the story can be found on the Guardian newspaper site. Here is a clip:

The founder of the South Korean citizen journalism site, OhmyNews, has appealed to readers for financial contributions to keep the business afloat in the global economic downturn.

In an open letter published on the OhmyNews site today, Oh Yeon-ho disclosed that the site lost 50,000,000 Korean Won (£248,735) this year amid fears of heavier losses as advertisers keep slashing their marketing budgets.

"For a news media to remain healthy, it will have to earn at least 50% of its income from the sales of content or paid subscriptions. Despite our best effort, OhmyNews still relies on advertisers for more than 70% of its revenue," Oh said.

OhMyNews is seen to be a pioneer in the "user-generated news" field, and attracted a huge amount of attention when it was launched in May, 2000.

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Jarrett Martineau

at 14:47 on July 8th, 2009

A very interesting turn of events. Thanks for this, sir!

Jordan Yerman

at 14:51 on July 8th, 2009

A pretty big turn of events...

Uwe Paschen

at 17:49 on July 8th, 2009

Are we going back to blogs and private sites?

Money is needed to run any form of news medium, may that be paper, TV, Radio or the net.

With Professional journalist contributing for remuneration or Citizen Journalist contributing to it.

The only difference would be the amount of money needed and the in depth coverage as well as a few other issues.

A. Tran

at 19:50 on July 8th, 2009

It's an interesting turn though I wonder how many people would actually pay to support the site?

Laughing-Samurai (not verified)

at 20:21 on July 8th, 2009

OhMyNews was one of the first, a site I visit, at least on a weekly basis but it's not a site I would be willing to pay for, nor would I pay for NP! But there are sites which I would be willing to make small subscriptions to. There are many kinds of organisations which run on donations, just depends on how much they can fulfill the needs of those willing to donate.

I don't know the current situation, but I think OhMyNews pays/paid its contributors? NP also talked about that, some time ago? Is that a current dead fish in the water?

DemocracyNow is one site I donate to, because I like the work by Amy Goodman, an excellent journalist, reporter and writer.

I wonder what would happen on NP if they charged the posters, say 50 cent/post would people still contribute them?