CityTools to launch as a 'social network for newspapers

U.S. CityTools will launch next month a platform that allows newspapers to share content and even use articles written by the public. According to the developers, several U.S. newspapers are already interested by the service.
"What we are trying to do is create a system where the barriers to a relevant flow of information are really removed while everyone still has their commercial interests intact," said president of CityTools Robert Cauthorn.
An audacious aim, considering both objectives of free-flowing information and sustained profitability have been the weights dragging the newspaper industry down.

The program’s publishers hope it can compete with dominant search engines because it rids itself of the “mass aggregation,” “shotgun approach” of Google-like engines. Instead it will provide “the same kind of mass but it’s all relevant to local readership,” Cauthorn said.

“Imagine this as a combination of a file-sharing network and a social network for newspapers (…) all for the benefit of the reader, the advertiser and the publisher – everybody wins,” Cauthorn.

It still sounds a hair too idealistic, but this networking platform could become a major factor in the conglomeration of news sources and media companies. The real losers could be small publishers, discouraged by the cost of the service – $650 flat per month – and slowly effaced by efficiently networked media giants.

Source: journalism.co.uk