The name of the publication and / or company
YouReporter
Established
2008
Web Address
Form of the company
LLC
Describe your site or business in few words.
YouReporter is a citizen journalism website that has become a popular destination for people interested in sharing breaking news videos or pictures. Content uploaded on YouReporter.com is often re-used by big media outlets, especially during crisis events as well as for the daily coverage of local news.
Angelo Cimarosti, founder of YouReporter, explains: “We launched YouReporter in 2008, as a purely amateur initiative. I am a broadcast journalist and I have always felt frustrated by the vast amount of videos and pictures available online (it is often impossible for reporters to find them). So, together with Stefano De Nicolo (a broadcast journalist), Luca Bauccio (a lawyer) and Alessandro Coscia (a programmer/designer) we decided to launch a citizen journalism website mainly focused on visual contributions. And this was the right insight at the right time. Around 2009 in Italy we have assisted to an explosion of mobile devices with video-recording capabilities and so our website has become a popular destination for many “citizen journalists” interested in reaching a wider audience. After a 2-year start-up period (with no business plan at all), in 2010 we decided to invest more time and money in YouReporter. That was also because managing a video-centered website means that you spend a lot of money in bandwidth, hosting etc. Presently our business model is focused on free content (accessible and re-usable by whoever is interested) subsidized by advertising. Thanks to the huge amount of monthly unique visitors (1.5 million in December 2011) we are sure that advertising alone can be enough for our sustainability.”
