Korean-Style Citizen Journalism For Japan

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]Ohmynews: OhmyNews to Foster Journalism in Japan
With technology leaders promoting the concept of Web 2.0 -- a vision of the Internet that replaces the top-down, one-expert-to-many-readers model of information distribution with participatory and collective knowledge -- OhmyNews seems prescient in its core belief that "Every citizen is a reporter"...OhmyNews, which has been in operation for six years, received further confirmation of the value of participatory journalism last month in the form of a $11 million investment from Softbank, a Tokyo-based technology and Internet investment firm, to expand its international presence, most notably by launching a Japanese edition later this year. The funds will also be used to develop OhmyNews' video journalism arm...more...

[gkanai]

uh oh, janjan.jp is in trouble...

[Mulboyne]

Torigoe Taro Named Chief Editor of OhmyNews Japan

OhmyNews International announced on Monday the appoint of Torigoe Taro as chief editor of OhmyNews Japan. Torigoe is a 41-year veteran of journalism well known among his peers and to the public for his impartial reporting. He has high hopes for OhmyNews Japan and wants to accomplish his next career goal in citizen participatory journalism. He and his team will work to develop a news Web site with the unique content and characteristics of OhmyNews. Torigoe got his start as a reporter with Mainichi Daily News in 1965. Over the years he has been a foreign correspondent, chief editor of a weekly magazine and a TV news anchor. As a frontline reporter, Torigoe's outgoing personality and tireless reporting soon began earning him a sterling reputation.

As host of "The Scoop," a program of TV Ashahi, Torigoe broadened his reporting through investigation and discussion of events and issues, often delving into the background of stories. He currently appears on "Super Morning," a program of TV Ashahi that deals with current issues, where he provides his take on daily news events. He has been actively engaged in cultural activities on the Internet, managing the regular columns section of an Internet news Web site since 2000. Torigoe's appointment has accelerated the establishment of OhmyNews Japan, which was initially launched on Feb. 22 through a joint project of OhmyNews and Softbank, a leading IT company in Japan. The Japanese edition of OhmyNews is the first step in the internationalization of its news services. OhmyNews Japan opened an office in Toranomon in the Minato-ku, Tokyo, on May 10. Fifteen Korean and Japanese staff members are currently at work in the office. OhmyNews Japan will begin recruiting citizen reporters next month. Regular news services and activities are expected to begin at the end of August.

[Taro Toporific]

Torigoe Taro Named Chief Editor of OhmyNews Japan

The English/International edition is here http://english.ohmynews.com/

[Mulboyne]

Torigoe Taro Named Chief Editor of OhmyNews Japan

Torigoe's speech at the OhmyNews International Citizen Reporters' Forum 2006:

...Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is quite popular]...more...[/URL]

[Mulboyne]

And here is the opening day. (Japanese)

[Mulboyne]

From this article:

There are several differences, however, between OhmyNews and OhmyNews Japan.

First, while OhmyNews requires resident registration numbers for registration, OhmyNews Japan asks citizen reporters to provide bank account numbers, because there is no resident registration system in Japan.

Secondly, OhmyNews calls articles that are not accepted by the editors "live trees." But OhmyNews Japan calls them "seeds of news." In other words, those articles have "hope" to generate quality news later although they lack some requirements at the moment. This name was created based on the characteristics of Japanese people, who are susceptible to others' criticisms.

Thirdly, OhmyNews Japan allows citizen reporters to use pen names if necessary, while OhmyNews strictly requires real names. To use pen names, citizen reporters have to provide acceptable reasons and their identity must be confirmed by the editorial bureau of OhmyNews Japan. In this case, a note will be added at the end of the article. This policy reflects the Japanese cultural practice that people are reluctant to use their real names in writing expose news articles.

[Mulboyne]

Telegraph: South Korean news pioneer targets Europe

Oh Yeon Ho, the pioneering South Korean journalist and owner of the world's largest 'citizen journalist' media website, plans to launch his website OhmyNews.com in Europe...more...

[Mulboyne]

And it's all over.

Global Voices: The End of OhmyNews Japan

At the end of August, 2008, OhmyNews, the citizen journalism site from South Korea that entered the Japanese market in 2006 with much fanfare, closed its doors. First officially announced on February 22, 2006, and launched shortly thereafter with help from the Japanese media giant Softbank and an investment contract valued at 1.3 billion yen [US$11 million], OhmyNews had a rough ride in Japan right from the beginning. As of the end of July, all staff were dismissed, and in late August operations ceased on the site. The company has now commenced a new initiative, named Oh!myLife...more...

[Mulboyne]

Mainichi: OhmyNews to shut down Japan sites

OhmyNews Corp. announced Wednesday it will be closing down its sites OhmyNews and Oh!MyLife, which are based in Japan, from April 24. Updates will carry on until April 3. Originally based in South Korea, OhmyNews was founded on the motto "every citizen is a reporter," publishing submissions from freelance contributors. OhmyNews Japan was started in August 2006.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Participatory online media face hard times

Internet news sites and other online media urging ordinary people to contribute writing are having trouble staying afloat, as demonstrated by the recent closure of the new site Oh!My Life. Oh!MyLife's predecessor, OhmyNews Japan, was an online news service. But in September, its operators closed the site and reintroduced it as Oh!MyLife, providing information on goods and commodities. But this too shut down on April 24. South Korea's OhmyNews Co. launched the Japanese version of its online news site in August 2006. "We couldn't make the most use of the two-way exchange that the Net allows," Masahiko Motoki, former chief editor of Shukan Gendai (Weekly Gendai), who also was chief editor and president of OhmyNews for about a year starting in June 2007.

OhmyNews was started in South Korea in 2000, targeting younger readers dissatisfied with the country's conservative established media. The Japanese version of OhmyNews started with great fanfare, appointing journalist Shuntaro Torigoe as its first chief editor. But from the very beginning it found itself caught in a quagmire. The site had decided to pay 300 yen per piece to citizen reporters, with the expectations that 10,000 such citizen reporters would register. But the number never topped even half that. OhmyNews Japan also projected 1 million page visits per day, but only achieved about 200,000. This hampered its ability to sell banner ads and pull in revenue.

Motoki said he thought the site could survive as a medium for people to uncover news from events in their daily lives. "But many pieces were straight opinions and commentaries based on news from existing media such as newspapers," Motoki said. This is one of the reasons the number of visitors to the site did not grow, he added. "[OhmyNews] was buried by blogs," Shinichi Komiya, who took over as president in July, said. When the site started in 2006, blogs, which first took off in earnest in 2004 in the country, were the big online thing. By August 2006, there were 12.7 million blogs in Japan, according to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry. People had once thought citizens media, by allowing anybody to report news, would be the big trend online, but instead blogs came to dominate online discourse.

Most participatory Internet media aimed at making money through advertising -- which depends on the number of site hits. But in fact, self-sustaining business models such as these found it hard to survive. Online news provider JanJan started in February 2003. "We don't have yet [a news presence] that has great influence, but we are always seeking to be something that gives impetus to existing mass communication," JanJan President Ken Takeuchi said. JanJan gets about 10 million site hits a month, but it still is unable to sell advertising space, and all current banner ads are for its parent company. The about 300 million yen in yearly operating costs are covered by the advertising income from the parent company. Tsukasa net news, meanwhile, is operated by a real estate company, Tsukasa Urban Development Co. The company's employees edit news at one of the firm's offices, all while doing their regular real estate business operations. Annual operating expenses are about 10 million yen, but the company's public relations department said, "It's inexpensive if we think of it as advertisement expenses."

PJnews Chief Editor Mitsuyasu Oda was cautiously optimistic. "The most important thing is to keep it going, so we need to trim expenses as much as possible," he said. PJnews attracted public attention when it got a scoop on a story about the former Japan Post Co. failing to pay benefits for postal life insurance when payment demands were not made. Oda, whose office is only a cell phone and a notebook PC he carries with him, edits news contributed from citizen reporters. He works alone. He said income and expenses balance out with the contract fee to deliver news reports and advertising income, he said. "[Participatory Internet media] have problems due to the lack of experience [of citizen reporters] and in credibility of information. It can't take the place of existing media, but it has a role to supplement the news with stories that major media do not follow," said freelance TV caster Kenichi Shimomura. "If they can create chances to make reporters out of people who want to express [their opinions] at their own levels, such media will possibly become more attractive," he said.