Citizen Journalism Takes A Step Forward

Last week, I received an e-mail from Jean-Baptiste, a name I did not recognize. In it, he shared that he liked my post on wind power and had placed it on a news blog called The Issue. Immediately, I clicked on the link to visit the site. After all, my story and byline were now gracing its pages, and I needed to know what that meant to me as a writer and to my blog's credibility. I can report that I am more than a little happy with what I found. So much so, that I interview Jean-Baptiste, the co-founder of The Issue. If you are a newshound, like me, and someone who enjoys online news sites such as CNN.com, I urge you to visit The Issue.

Q. What inspired you to launch The Issue?

A. The idea to launch the issue stems from a passion for intelligent debate. The current revolution of the media, as it decentralizes and empowers a citizen-based media, is in its early phases. There's so much great knowledge and insight in blogs written by experts, eye-witnesses and passionate people on a whole variety of subjects. Blogs give the reader direct access to top scientists and doctors for example, or the relief worker on the front line of a foreign disaster area. We thought that an online newspaper that draws on all of this great content could help the information seekers by sifting through the best content and delivering this insight and help the information providers (the bloggers) by encouraging intelligent debate.

Q. What do you see for The Issue in one year? in five years?

A. In a year, The Issue will be a place where people know that they can always find the best insights on the most important issues. In five years we see ourselves as becoming a large player in the news industry that is challenging CNN and other large networks to increase the quality of their content, as The Issue leads the citizen journalist movement. We feel that people want insightful discourse over gossip, if provided with the option. Blogging is the best medium through which to produce this excellent content. In five years, The Issue will be helping to shape the way that citizen media is filtered and consumed.

Q. Who should read The Issue?

A. For the news reader we provide stories from a news source that has reporters (bloggers) located all around the world, writing on all kinds of different topics. For the blogger The Issue introduces new readers to blogging and the featured blogger in particular, because we only use a short excerpt and then a link so we drive traffic to the blogger. For the blog reader we provide a great portal through which to discover new blogs, or start your daily blog dive.

Q. How are you gathering stories for The Issue?

A. There is currently no good algorithmic aggregator on the market. You end up with the most popular blogs on Britney Spears, not the best blogs on the most important issues. Our editorial team handpicks every article from a whole range of blogs scoured using a variety of aggregating tools like RSS readers, blog search, and tips. Every single post we select has been personally read and selected. After spending months scouring blogs, we have each developed specialties in each general subject area (science blogs, business blogs, political blogs, etc.), which has helped us visualize an intricate map of the blogosphere. The end result is that we know who the experts are on any subject that we cover.  Combining this with the editorial expertise of a newspaper staff, and you have a powerful means of generating excellent content.

Q. Do you have a staff?

A. Yes we have a team of four people working on this full time and four additional people working part time. Our team:

• Matt Dalio - Harvard, Psychology and Economics
• Jean-Baptiste Cossart - Cornell, International Politics and Economics
• Stephen Puschel - Bates, English
• Alex Welles - Harvard Continuing Education, History and Economics

Q. It appears you are competing against CNN.com and Yahoo News. Is that a fair statement?

A. I would say we are challenging them, not really competing against them. In addition to traditional reporting, people want opinions from top people, which explains why the op-ed column is one of the most read part of a newspaper. As many prominent new media people have emphasized, blogs are never going to displace the need for professional journalists. But the blogging revolution, with The Issue as part of it, is certainly going to challenge those established companies and the way that they do their work. This is in much the same way that machines completely changed manufacturing - people still work to build cars, but now they oversee the process, instead of putting in each bolt.

Q. What makes The Issue different from other online news sites?

A. Breadth. The Issue pulls from blogs all over the blogosphere. We simply look for the best. We don't limit ourselves to a staff of in house Bloggers. Instead, we just select the best content out there for our readers. Balance. The Issue choses four different perspectives for each featured "Issue of the Day" -  We don't have a political agenda, we just want to draw on the best discourse. We openly try to dilute any personal bias by providing insight from four different views. Essence. We don't want to bombard the reader with every detail of each event. We provide a judicious selection of the most important, interesting and well written stories so as to make the most of your time.