Have you heard of OhMyNews?

Millions of people have and thousands of ‘citizen journalists’ particpate daily.

The staff at OhmyNews fills only two floors of a small office building in downtown Seoul, but it edits stories from thousands of “citizen reporters” across South Korea.

The 150 or so stories posted on the site each day range from breaking news about huge protests to sophisticated political analysis, from hit pieces to tales of the daily ups and downs of people who feel ignored by established media.

OhmyNews readers can offer instant feedback online and — if they really like a piece — monetary tips. Readers poured nearly 30 million won ($30,000) into columnist Kim Young Ok’s account in increments of $10 or less in one week after he criticized the constitutional court of South Korea last year.

“They’re like street musicians or performers,” Jean Min, director of the international news division, said of the citizen reporters.

OhmyNews is much more than a soapbox, though. It is a cross between an online news site and a sophisticated blog. Koreans flock to it. The site gets 1.7 million to 2 million page views each day, a number that shot up to 25 million during the December 2002 presidential election.

When reformer Roh Moo Hyun won the tight presidential race, he granted his first domestic interview to OhmyNews — a slap to the conservative corporate daily papers that supported his rival.

The privately held Web site has been profitable since September 2003 and is projected to pull in $10 million this year, Min said. By contrast, Salon.com in San Francisco pulled in $6.6 million in fiscal year 2005 and had 1.1 million average daily page views in July, according to market research firm comScore Media Metrix. The DailyKos, a popular liberal blog written in Berkeley, had 96,774 average daily page views, and conservative blog Instapundit had 32,258 in July.

english/international edition