India's first citizen powered tabloid newspaper launched in Gurgaon

| Last updated less than one minute ago

Submit :

News Photos Just In Debate Topic Latest News Articles Local News Blog Posts Pictures Reviews Recipes

Preethi

12 January, 2012

In the star-studded and vibrant print and online media in India, there are few media platforms that combine the rigour of conventional media with the freedom of social media. While conventional media often grapples with internal and external agendas, social media can sometimes stretch the truth and legitimize a lie. In this media environment, consumers of news are always on the lookout for platforms that do justice to citizen-led news gathering. Citizen Journalism may not be a new concept in India but at the same time not many organizations are flying the flag of citizen-empowered news dissemination in a focused way.

AT A time when people verify news read and seen from other news sources, any endeavour to provide news straight from a citizen’s perspective is noteworthy. After it launched its online edition for Gurgaon in August, 2011, merinews.com, the largest Citizen Journalism platform in India, in a bid to bring local news on a global platform, has launched its Citizen Powered Tabloid for the Gurgaon region. While there is no shortage of news sources for news related to Gurgaon, merinews the tabloid newspaper, being built around contributions from Citizen Journalists, plans to provide citizens of Gurgaon an agenda-free and ideology-free platform to give voice to the stories they want to tell and the views they want to share.

The tabloid is likely to fill the growing niche of news as it is and analysis as it should be. This monthly issue, whose periodicity is likely to be increased in the future, and restricted to private circulation, will focus on hyper local news from the city submitted by local residents who will contribute as Citizen Journalists. The news stories featured in the edition will simultaneously be published on merinews.com.

Speaking on this development, Vipul Kant Upadhyay (Founder & CEO), Merinews.com, said, “The merinews tabloid is an extension of our online content distribution and will further reinforce our vision of Power to People through collaborative journalism. The launch of the print version is a momentous occasion for all of us as this marks a significant milestone in our growing operations.”

The tabloid is not in direct competition with conventional print brands. Instead, it will focus on covering local stories reported by the residents of the city and will have information across segments including social issues, education, cultural events, problems related to infrastructure, technology, current happenings, lifestyle.merinews.com" id="highlight">lifestyle and business as contributed by local Citizen Journalists.

This clear focus on citizen-empowered news and a local reader base will attract retail and wholesale advertisers. With Merinews planning to replicate the model of creating a combination of online and offline mediums in other cities across India, the move will not only help bring in hyper local news generated by residents on a global platform it will also encourage brands to associate themselves with a platform that has many positive attributes.

Readers and Citizen Journalists can click on online version of merinews newspaper here to view the PDF version of the recently launched printedition. With there being no shortage of issues, events and opinions related to Gurgaon, people residing and working in this bustling and eventful city should find it easy to express themselves through the merinews tabloid, and not wait for a reporter to reach them to report news or express their views.