by CIO Staff

OhMyNews Starts Recruiting for Japanese Site

News
Jul 21, 20061 min
Internet

South Korean citizen-media site OhMyNews began recruiting on Friday for its new Japanese-language site, which is due to launch next month.

The site started in South Korea in 2000 under the banner “every citizen is a reporter” and immediately began challenging the mainstream media with its news site written by readers. The site is credited with several major scoops in South Korea but has also come under criticism from conservative media outlets for a perceived bias in some of its reporting.

It currently utilizes about 40,000 citizen reporters, each of whom get paid about US$20 for a newsworthy submission.

The Japanese service will be headed by Shuntaro Torigoe, a veteran newspaper reporter and TV commentator, and is backed by a multimillion-dollar investment from Internet and telecommunications operator Softbank. The Japanese arm of the service, run by OhMyNews International, has already opened an office and has about 15 full-time staff.

Check out the Japanese website here.

-Martyn Williams, IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)

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