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Agence France-Presse invests in citizen journalism venture Scooplive
Agence France-Presse (AFP), one of the first news agencies in the world (created in 1835 by Charles-Louis Havas), has teamed up with IAM (a company founded by Xavier Gouyou Beauchamps and Pascal Josèphe), to become a minority shareholder in Scooplive (which has been renamed Citizenside), a pioneer in citizen reporting. The investment follows the acquisition of Scoopt by Getty images in March 2007 and further signals a change in traditional media outlets embracing citizen photojournalism as a legitimate source for editorial images and video content.
Scooplive, was founded in 2006 by Matthieu Stefani, Julien Robert and Philippe Checinski, and the company capitalizes on new technology that has made it easier to capture and distribute imagery, making citizen photojournalism increasingly relevant to the news cycle. Amateurs and professionals now have the opportunity to sell their pictures and videos on current news, in return for a small commission.
"For us, this gives us the opportunity to conduct a commercial and technologic experience in the web 2.0 world, for the benefit of our clients, mainly in the media sector. We intend to offer them the possibility to use the technological platform under their own brand. AFP will not be involved in the editorial process of selection and validation of the documents available on the platform", said Pierre Louette, AFP Chairman.
"CITIZENSIDE will capitalize on the experience gained by its founders and its new partners", says Matthieu Stefani, a founder of Scooplive.
Web: www.citizenside.com - www.afp.com - Click here to view the original press release.
Posted in: Citizen Journalism, News, Photographers
