Unless your Internet connection has been cut off for the last year, you know that "old" media is finally starting to open up and become more interactive. To varying degrees, news organizations are giving their audience greater opportunities to participate. An increasing number of them -- especially newspapers, but also some more forward-thinking broadcasters like the BBC -- are inviting the public to contribute their "news" in order to have it published under the news company's brand name.

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Many news executives and editors are struggling to get past the psychological hurdle of allowing the public such free reign -- to toss out old notions that only the work of trained journalists should be allowed to be published. Once past that, then their thoughts must turn to business models.

For newspapers, the business model for doing a local citJ project can include something they'll be comfortable with: print.

The print-online citJ project begins with a Web site, where local citizens typically are given an easy way to contribute their news and information. Content from the public might be published online in a separate, stand-alone Web site -- a la Bakersfield's Northwest Voice or Boulder's MyTown -- and then the best of that content is used to fill a once-a-week print publication that's either delivered separately or as an insert in a daily paper.

Such print publications can become a modern version of the old "shopper" or zoned weekly local-news edition. But instead of being filled with press releases and/or the work of a small, overworked suburban news bureau's staff and freelancers, the content is the best of the last week's contributions by members of the community. (More often, such print products combine citizen-submitted content with a few articles and photos from staff journalists.)

Where's the money come from? Advertising, of course, just as the old, stale weekly inserts or shoppers used to attract. But with a more "down-home," grassroots feel, you can expect more interest in this neighborhood edition, and thus more in it for advertisers. Such neighborhood or regional citJ-oriented editions serve to attract more advertising from merchants and companies that only want to reach their immediate neighbors, not pay for run-of-press ads that go all over the paper's circulation area.

New money from new advertisers

By offering a cheaper alternative than advertising in the newspaper or on the TV station, some traditional news Web sites have had success attracting advertisers that have not been customers before. Going after non-advertisers is a particularly good strategy for news organizations' citJ Web sites and the print editions mentioned above.

Steve Yelvington, vice president of content strategies for Morris Digital, says that it's unrealistic to think that newspapers can wring more money out of existing local advertisers. If anything, after all, their money is harder to get, because of the abundance of other advertising opportunities that exist in the media world today. So when a new citJ Web site and print edition come along to add to the cacophony, ad money to support them probably needs to come from somewhere else.

Morris has been experimenting with citJ on sites like Bluffton Today, a combined Web site and print edition that actually integrates staff-journalist and citizen content. Yelvington says that beyond traditional advertisers, BT is looking to recruit ads from strip-mall and entrepreneurial companies, for example -- those who haven't written checks to Morris before.

Yelvington also sees considerable opportunity for targeted ads, such as those seen on many Web sites from Google's AdSense program. His company is looking at approaches such as allowing advertisers to enter orders any time of day or night through automation, including the ability to target audience slices. That doesn't mean that traditional ad-sales efforts are cut back, only that automation enables expanding the base of targeted potential advertisers.

CitJ as a classifieds marketplace

Classified advertising can be an integral component of a news organization's citJ initiative -- but don't expect it to operate by the old rules. Especially within the realm of citizen journalism, the idea of the consumer paying to place an ad in a publication or on a Web site is anachronistic. "Citizen reporters" also can be "citizen advertisers," placing their ads for free. If they can do it for free on their local Craigslist, then they should be able to place a free ad on a news citJ site, as well.

CitJ sites would be well advised to offer free ads at a basic level, but then offer "upsells" to bring attention to their ads. Extra charges can be added for such goodies as premium placement, special targeting, extra photos, inclusion of video, extra wording, additional length of run for the ad, etc. For those with accompanying weekly print editions, there's even the option of making online ads free but charging to be included in print. Or offer brief free print ads, but charge for extended ones and/or for print references to expanded online ad listings.

To pay or not to pay

For any citJ operation, a significant issue to resolve is whether or not to pay those who submit content. There are two schools of thought, of course:

1. We're providing the publishing tools for community members to engage in a conversation with their neighbors. This isn't something that they should be paid for; their reward is in participating in a better community interaction than they've ever had before. They're not real "reporters" and shouldn't be paid as though there are.
2. In order to attract quality content, and to get people to do so on a routine basis, they must be compensated in some way. To expect community members to go out of their way to submit content and cover their micro-communities entirely for free is an irrational expectation.

Among news organizations practicing citJ today, the majority, it seems, favor No. 1. But a small but growing number are beginning to recognize the value in compensating citizen contributors. In South Africa, for instance, the company that owns the Sunday Times, Johnnic Media Investments, has launched Reporter.co.za, a citJ site that pays contributors who submit articles and photos of good quality a small amount of cash. (It has copied the oldest independent citJ Web site, South Korea's Ohmynews, which pays its citizen reporters, with rates based on how Ohmynews editors rank a submission.) Reporter.co.za also entices citizen reporters by announcing that if a citizen news report is important enough, the parent company's traditional news properties may pay a licensing fee to republish it.

Obviously, then, the decision to pay (or not to pay) your citizen reporters has a bearing on the business model required to support the citJ operation. The costs of acquiring content are going to be higher with a Reporter.co.za-type model. One thing to consider is non-cash options for compensating citizen reporters. Contributors can be enticed by being entered in drawings for prizes, or contests can be held routinely to reward those who submit the best photos. Even giving away promotional T-shirts and coffee mugs can be an enticement. At Backfence.com, a venture-capital-backed network of local citJ Web sites, the company has begun offering free $5 "coffee cards" in exchange for submitting at least five articles.

Unless you firmly believe that citizen reporters do not deserve to be paid, figure out some way to compensate them as an enticement to continued involvement with your citJ operation -- whether the payment is coffee or cash.

Partner with existing community bloggers

A growing number of news Web sites have figured out that playing host to community bloggers is a good thing. They provide free hosting and marketing, but typically don't pay the bloggers anything. (The exception are sites that seek out and attract a small number of the best local bloggers, then agree to pay them on a freelance/contract basis.)

This come-all-bloggers approach can pay off -- both to the publishing Web site and to bloggers themselves. The most obvious method is to deploy contextual advertising from search-engine companies like Google with its AdSense program, then split those revenues between publisher and blogger.

Don't pooh-pooh this as a source of revenue. AdSense and programs like it tend to work well on Web sites that target a narrow niche. So if you've got a community blogger hosted by your site who's, say, writing about water skiing in your region, he or she can perform well on AdSense in terms of percentage of clickthroughs to the contextual ads. If a community blogging initiative has a bunch of blogs that are all that tightly focused, the AdSense revenues can add up.

There's money in clicks

And speaking of contextual-advertising programs, overall, these can be a lucrative revenue source for citizen media. Much of the "coverage" that community members contribute to citJ initiatives focuses on narrow topics. Things like citizen reporting of local kids' athletics, for instance, can be successful in attracting decent activity in contextual advertising. Clickthrough rates on such niche pay-per-click advertising typically outperform traditional Web site banner ads.

Local ad sales may still provide the lion's share of revenues to support citJ programs, but, managed right, programs like AdSense, Yahoo! Sponsored Search, and Chitika can provide considerable financial support.

A good source of advice about making your site AdSense-friendly is AdSense Chat, an online forum where publishers discuss how to make AdSense perform best for them. The host of that site, Joel Comm, also wrote an e-book with tips about enhancing AdSense revenues. This sort of thing is useful to all publishers who accept advertising, but especially to publishers practicing citJ.

Another good source is Darren Rowse, who publishes a blog called ProBlogger, which exists to teach bloggers how to make more money. While targeted at bloggers, of course, the site's advice is appropriate for citJ publishers, too. (Rowse also has some good advice and information about getting the most out of Google AdSense.)