Would you be interested in reading or writing for this newspaper?

Question

I am interested in setting up a fortnightly PDF newspaper that is written by its readers. The idea being to publish the news from the readers perspective.

Once the paper is up and running the idea from there is to open a forum where people can discuss the news and pit their points of view forward, and generally to get people talking about what is going on and to listen to all sides of the argument.

Would anyone be interested in reading or writing for such a newspaper?

Also any ideas you could provide would be great.

The paper doesnt have a specific theme, its literally printing what people are writing as long as their is some basis to it.

Answer 1

First, is this going to be news or commentary?  If it's news, I'd be interested in reading it, so long as I can see some evidence that actual reporting took place -- some quotes, some independent research, or some description of the scene being depicted.  I wouldn't be particularly interested in having someone re-state the news as they perceive it, if their only sources are newspapers, radio, television or other bloggers.

If it's commentary, it would have to be well thought out.  For example, if one of these reader-generated articles says that I should vote for one candidate because the other is a moron, I would never read this publication again.  On the other hand, if someone wants to discuss why Candidate A has a better economic policy than Candidate B, and can make an intelligent argument about why that's so, I'd be all ears.

Either way, the publication would have to be interesting and well-written, and use the English language the way it's taught in school, not the way it's seen on the Internet.  Someone who doesn't know the difference between "there" and "their" isn't going to command my respect.

Would I write for it?  That depends on how much you pay your writers.  You get what you pay for.  Good content isn't free.