In yet another sign that actual trained journalists such as the ones employed by this newspaper will eventually be replaced by robots, “citizen journalism” Web site NowPublic.com on Monday said it closed a $10.6 million round of Series A financing. The round was led by Rho Ventures and included the company’s seed investor Brightspark GrowthWorks Capital Ltd.’s Working Opportunity Fund.
Vancouver, British Columbia-based NowPublic.com is a so-called participatory news network, with more than 100,000 contributing reporters in over 140 countries and 3,600 cities. It provides an outlet for people to write an article or post a picture on its site, giving it an advantage by often having "correspondents" in places where news is breaking. It is also appealing to investors because its costs are minimal since it does not pay for the content, much like online video sharing Web site YouTube.com.
We’re not ready to throw in the towel yet, but NowPublic is another good example of how the Internet is continually changing the way news is reported. —David Shabelman
See NowPublic.com funding announcement
Tags: media, vc, venture+capital
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