Charles Apple

If you think resources are tight at large and mid-size dailies, just ask the folks at tiny dailies and weeklies. Even places you thought didn’t have enough belt to tighten have tightened their belts.

In steps SmartNewsroom, a new venture from the folks at SmartNews, a free weekly tab in Fayetteville, N.C.

The idea: What if there were a content service — with stories, photos, graphics — that served these micro-papers and charged only micro-fees? Small papers throughout the country might really take advantage of a resource like that.

And, naturally, if enough newspapers bought that content, it could possibly make it worth the effort for the writers, photographers and artists who offer their work.

Small fees x lots of tiny papers out there = decent money.

Sounds like a great idea. SmartNews publisher Randy Foster and managing editor Jim McBee have been working on a way to make this happen.

SmartNews’ Jim McBee
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They’re ready to begin testing. They have their beta site up – Jim points out that it’s just a framework now; it’ll fill in as they acquire content.

What they need, obviously, is some content to start out with.

Jim writes:

For our beta version, we’d like to have 30 really good freelancers from a broad spectrum — news, sports, features, biz, opinion; writing, photography, illustration, page design and graphics; investigative, spot coverage, human interest; traditional and alternative.

We have a handful of folks lined up, but I need your help finding more freelancers to help us roll this thing out. I bet you know someone who’s been laid off, or recently taken a buyout, or who’s just decided to get out of the rotten newspaper game — but who still has a passion for journalism. Or you may know people who already make a living or part of one selling stories, photos, illustrations to whoever’s buying. This site is for them.

Please pass this note along to anyone you know who freelances. Our plan is to get seriously cranking this summer.

Here’s some boilerplate on SmartNewsroom:

What is SmartNewsroom?

SNR is a Web business where freelancers upload content and publishers buy it.

Publications buy only what they need; journalists have control over their products and get a little (maybe even a lot of) extra money — and continue to pursue their crafts. Editors and freelancers stop spending valuable time recruiting prospects and focus on what they’re good at: journalism and publishing.

Why write/shoot/draw on spec?

First, the smart thing to do is repurpose work you’ve already sold, but not exclusively.

Second, sometimes the news won’t wait for you to make a deal.

Third, instead of freelancers pitching story ideas, or editors hunting freelancers to cover stories, let the freelancers get on with writing, shooting, drawing and designing; let editors get on with editing and publishing.

How does this work?

A publication only pays a tiny price for each story, photo, graphic or page; you make money by selling to many publications.

Each time a publication buys your work, they’re required to rate it before they buy anything else. Your rating is the average of all your previous story-ratings, and the price of your content is your rating multiplied by the size of publication making the purchase.

You get every penny from the purchase, and you get paid when your account reaches $100.

There’s more info here.

Sounds really interesting, Jim. This is just the sort of thing that would really help some of the small papers who sent folks to my recent sessions in Cary, N.C. and in Dallas.

If you’re interested — either as a contributor or as a customer — please follow the links and contact Jim right away.

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