Tooth and Dagger
Jobs 2.0: Ever played Hungry Hungry Hippos? An afternoon at NowPublic.com
November 2007
As big trusted news sources become things of the past, Vancouver’s NowPublic.com is breaking ground for a new institution of citizen journalism.
Recently named one of the year’s best 50 websites by Time magazine, NowPublic serves up the people’s news out of a Gastown loft space overlooking the railway tracks and the ocean. There, half a dozen staff members park laptops at a long, picnic-style table for the day’s work.
Although the company employs 18 (two-thirds of whom work in New York and Europe), a teeming mass of contributors dwarfs the staff: the two-year-old participatory news network counts nearly 97,000 contributing reporters around the world. These members upload news, videos, and photos from over 140 countries.
“The only information we get [from members] is their email address and postal code,” says contributor relations specialist Jordan Yerman. “So, half of our best contributors, we don’t even know their real names.”
“They’re as involved in this process as we are,” says Ryan Nadel, content and contributor manager. “Even maybe more so—on a totally volunteer basis.”
