(NAPSA)—You can use the Internet to find out what’s happening virtually anywhere in the world, but it seems Web surfers are most interested in what’s happening in their own backyard. That’s the word from Web watchers who say that when it comes to being in the know in 4-\—| THAT. ok SHEL |e Shipsae Pres,yell their communities, local news and discussions are king. Gone are the days when people sit back and wait for news to come to them. More and more, everyday people are serving as the eyes andearsof their local communities and actively engaging with the news. They are talking about—and contributing to—the news that their friends and neighbors truly care about. Asthe largest community news site online, Topix.com is the place millions of people find news about their local town or neighborhood. It offers news and discussion forums categorized by each of the country’s 32,500 zip codes. Now more than 50,000 com- ments are added to the local online conversation each day, making the site a top destination for finding out what’s happening in towns and cities across the country. The New News Makers As part of this evolution in news, sites like Topix.com are now providing ways for people to easily share, discuss—and even edit— the news that matters most to them and their communities. Imagine it as virtual news bureaus and “citizen editors” popping upall over the U.S. to allow a forum for people to provide commentary, insight and breaking newsas they see it happen. “After seeing passionate discus- sions in forums on oursite that were happening in small towns and suburbs across America, we realized we could count on our users to cover the news best,” “We wanted to turn the site over to our users, after we saw the most passionate discussions were taking place at the local level.” explains Chris Tolles, vice president of marketing at Topix. And there is demand for this “platform for the people.” In the first month of accepting applica- tions for citizen editors, more than 1,000 people volunteered to improve andedit the news content in their local communities. In addition to finding and posting stories from more than 50,000 other news sources (Web sites, newspapers, newsservices, blogs, etc.) and forum threads, citizen editors can also compose stories from scratch and then use the site’s simple tools to publish to online pages read by millions of people. “lve always been hyperinvolved in my community and believe that I have a good feel for what the people in my area care about,” said Stephen Sherokey, citizen editor for the Saratoga Springs, New York page on Topix. “Topix.com has given metheplatform to report on and share the news that matters most to people in mylocal community.” To view your city’s local news or to apply to be a citizen editor for your town’s page, visit www.topix.com/paper.
