Dan Gillmor is pitching top editors at U.S. newspapers today on the importance of citizen journalism.
From his post:
“I’m going to say what I always say: that this is too important for their future to ignore, and that it’s going to happen with or without them — and that newspapers, almost uniquely, have the ability to be the leaders in this new marketplace of ideas given their already strong presence in local communities.”
It will be interesting to see if they ignore this movement just like they ignored Craigslist and others coming into their marketplaces. If they want to own local, they should be embracing this now and figuring it out. There will be missteps along the way, but the potential this movement holds is theirs to lose.