Allvoices Launches First Citizen Journalist Global News Desk in 30 Cities

SAN FRANCISCO, April 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Allvoices.com, the first open media site where anyone can report from anywhere, today launched a first of its kind Global News Desk where both professional and citizen journalists will provide regular in-country reports from 30 major cities around the world.

(Logo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100316/AQ70267LOGO-b)

The Global News Desk leverages in-country reports through an innovative landing page process that enables the Allvoices to feature the best of the world on their front page. Each city represented by the Desk has an Allvoices landing page which features local news. Likewise each country and continent has their own landing page. An algorithm promotes the best of the city page to the country page and the best of the country page to the continent page. Finally, the best of the continent page will be promoted to the Allvoices front page.

"Our international news bureau operation integrates local and regional issues—that normally receive little to no media coverage—into the greater global conversation," said Aki Hashmi, Chief Marketing Officer at Allvoices.com. "At this point, only 50% of the world events are covered by major media. Of that 50%, 80% feature the western, developed world. Allvoices is committed to changing this and our News Bureaus are leap in filling this void."

Citizen reporters from around the world can now contribute reports directly or ask to receive assignments to report specifically about major issues within their hometowns. The Global Desk empowers citizen journalists with experience and authority while helping them build a body of work.

Cities that have appointed Global Desk citizen and professional journalists include:

• Baghdad, Iraq
• Beijing, China
• Beirut, Lebanon
• Cairo, Egypt
• Colombo, Sri Lanka
• Doha, Qatar
• Dubai, UAE
• Islamabad, Pakistan
• Johannesburg, South Africa
• Kolkata, India
• London, UK
• Manila, Philippines
• Nairobi, Kenya
• Shanghai, China
• Yerevan, Armenia

Plus cities in:

• Canada
• Iran
• Israel
• Nigeria
• Palestinian Territories
• Turk and Caicos Island
• USA

What's more, the Global Desk brings a level of intimacy to international coverage by featuring reports from citizens actually experiencing the news, in contrast to an outside perspective being reported by a journalist. Today Allvoices is the largest citizen journalist site in history featuring stories, video and images from more than 300,000 contributors daily. This fresh approach to news and reporting has allowed the site to quickly build an audience of 4.5 million.

About Allvoices, Inc.

Allvoices' mission is to create a global community for sharing news, videos, images and opinions from multiple points of view that invoke an emotional connection between individual perspectives from around the world. A community of diverse, engaged and globally minded citizens serves as news reporters, opinion leaders and publishers to share with the world the realities on-the-ground. Allvoices.com brings together context, insight and diversity of opinions around a broad range of topics and issues on the global, national and local levels. Allvoices is the largest global community offering unbiased and relevant news and perspectives in one place. With its proprietary algorithms, Allvoices utilizes professional and online news sources, blogs, images and videos to determine relevancy, foster credibility and maintain openness with each contribution made to the site. For more information, visit http://www.allvoices.com/

SOURCE Allvoices, Inc.