Topix.net, the Palo Alto Web site that features news stories from around the world, is expanding into the citizen journalism business, offering readers a chance to publish their own stories.
The move is a part of a broader overhaul that includes the addition of public forums and the ability to comment on stories.
``The nature of news is changing as interactivity comes into play,'' said Chris Tolles, Topix's vice president of marketing. ``The number of people blogging and wanting to participate seems to be an opportunity.''
The company is jointly owned by newspaper companies Gannett, Tribune and Knight Ridder, the parent company of the Mercury News.
Topix obtains much of its revenue from advertising that runs alongside its stories and from business partners that pay to tap into its news content. The company is hoping the new features will draw more visitors and increase ad revenue.
It does not produce any news on its own. Much like Google News, Topix is a news aggregator, pulling together headlines and story summaries from thousands of sources. People who click on Topix headlines are connected to the original content, which is from newspapers, blogs, TV stations and other sources.
Despite the fact that Topix is not an original news source, people from around the country regularly send the company news story suggestions or comment about events happening in their communities.
That helped inspire the company to make its site more interactive.
The notion of citizen journalism -- where readers create and publish their own news -- has spawned dozens of new Web sites and projects in the past two years. So far the results have been mixed, with many sites drawing few contributions.
Part of the problem, said Tolles and Topix Chief Executive Rich Skrenta, is that many citizen journalism sites do not draw much traffic. Topix, on the other hand, attracts 5 million unique visitors a month, though they're spread across many thousands of categories.
``We have, we hope, a reasonable amount of audience,'' Tolles said, ``so that you'll see some participation. We have the seed of content and the tools of participation.''
Topix has 360,000 category pages, some for topical areas, such as NASCAR, others for geographic areas, such as San Jose. In the sidebar of each topic page will be links for people who want to contribute stories of their own or post messages in forums. A comments link will hang below each story summary for those who want to add comments to stories.
Skrenta believes the site will appeal to users in areas not well-served by mainstream media sources who may be reluctant to start their own blog. Topix isn't assuming that people will only want to discuss the news they find on Topix. Skrenta and Tolles said the geographically local Topix pages can become hubs for community discussions about whatever is relevant to people.
Despite its scale, Topix could face challenges trying to build communities on its news pages, observers said. For a lot of people, Topix is not the local news brand -- that distinction goes to local TV stations or newspapers.
``It's an interesting idea,'' said media consultant Vin Crosbie. ``It's a nice addition to what they're providing, but I don't see it as a threat to local newspapers or TV stations. The problem they have is they don't have a local brand name and identity.''
San Jose media consultant Susan Mernit noted the bigger opportunity for Topix may lie in helping its newspaper partners make their sites more interactive, an area where newspapers have lagged.
``My sense is the greatest opportunity will come with some affiliation with a local brand,'' Mernit said.
Contact Michael Bazeley at mbazeley@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5642, and read his blog at www.siliconbeat.com.
