Gannett setting the curve

If you want to tell the thinkers at Gannett that their new crowdsourcing methods are bad for journalism, go right ahead.

But considering their stock has plummeted 30 percent since January, 2004, I don't think they're going to listen to you.

iStockphoto.com, a popular crowdsourcing image Web site, will provide you with little more than generic photos like this one.

Instead they're going to continue with exactly what they should be doing—finding ways to improve the flow of information and give the people what they want. Their goals are simple: to emphasize local news over national, publish more user-generated content, get citizens involved in telling the news, and better utilize the Internet to create round-the-clock content.

That doesn't sound "bad" to me, just smart. This seems to be the direction the American media is going and perhaps other organizations will be left behind if they don't take the progressive steps Gannett is taking toward better serving its customers.

If that's not enough proof crowdsourcing is a smart idea, consider a Web site like InnoCentive.com. It's a research and development site devoted to finding solutions to problems facing all kinds of companies all over the world. Through crowdsourcing, it calls upon the collective knowledge of the public to overcome contemporary scientific challenges and problems. So what's wrong with that?

You couldn't possibly tell me with a straight face that having more people work at fixing scientific problems is a bad idea. It's the same in journalism; Gannett is merely ahead of the game.