Hearst signs up a pool of citizen journalists

Little noticed so far is news that Hearst, owner of the struggling Seattle Post-Intelligencer and San Francisco Chronicle — hell, their whole newspaper chain is struggling — has struck a deal with Helium, a Massachusetts-based Web site that coordinates freelance citizen journalists, to provide content for Hearst newspapers.

At first this will involve only two small papers in Connecticut. But consider the implications, as reported by Boston Business Journal:

The deal gives the newspaper publishing arm of New York-based Hearst Corp. access to Andover, Mass.-based Helium’s marketplace of freelance writers. The marketplace enables Hearst to essentially put out to bid stories for competition on a range of topics. Freelance writers can submit content through the site, and Hearst then chooses the best stories and compensates the writers.