Stockholm, SWEDEN -- (SBWire) -- 10/23/2010 -- NewsCollective, an online news bureau focused on empowering journalists and publishers worldwide to source content online, has announced today that they have over 1,000 journalists and 30 publishers from 26 countries registered on the site. What is commendable is that this widespread participation has taken place during the beta testing of the site in less than three months.

NewsCollective launched an invite-only beta test phase of its website on 28th April 2010 for 100 select professional writers to start exploring the many tools available to build their online identity, create/ upload/ sell articles, manage their professional reputation and have better working relationships with publishers and peers, online.

The focus markets for the invitation only beta testing phase initially planned were India, USA and Sweden but were later expanded to 13 countries, due to the overwhelming response to this new disruptive concept for content creation and transaction.

The website is fast gaining popularity among the professional writer and publisher communities, respectively.
“We are delighted with the success of the beta testing of NewsCollective. The number of registrations to the website has been more than encouraging,” commented Jan Villars, CEO of NewsCollective. “It proves the website has already struck a chord with professional writers who are looking for alternative sources where they can sell their content and ensure that they get paid, without any hassles.”

Ninna Engberg, Chairperson of NewsCollective’s Board of Directors added, “We would like to thank both these communities for their tremendous support and response to NewsCollective’s unique business model. Their inputs during the testing phase will be crucial in our efforts to complete the beta stage, and we look forward to participants’ help in shaping NewsCollective.”

The success and momentum of NewsCollective continues as the new website starts to address the daunting challenge of the changing face of the media industry with publishing houses gearing up to cater to the needs of an ever-demanding audience for latest news and unique content.

At the same time, as business gets squeezed, employee lay-offs have been increasingly taking place in media houses, leaving a deep impact on the prospects of professional journalists globally. Professional journalists are dealing with a scenario where they have a lot of unique content but do not have the access to reach out to publishers and negotiate assignments with them in an open and professional market place.

“NewsCollective team has been working towards creating a genre-defining experience, and the beta signups certainly validate that we are taking the website in the right direction. Writers who have a lot of content but did not have the right platform to sell it to publishers outside their geographies have been giving us a lot of positive feedback about our efforts to market them and their work effectively. We would like to thank all our beta testers for the assistance, observations and experiences they have given so far,” said Kaushik Thakkar, Vice Chairman, NewsCollective.

NewsCollective has created an online portal to help professional writers interface and sell their content to publishers, at a price determined by them. It gives writers the perfect platform to write their own personalized content, in the form of stories, features, photographs, videos, etc.

This website is slated to be launched officially in October 2010. Once the beta test is complete, NewsCollective will open its doors to others journalists. Registration for journalists to the website is free, while publishers will have to pay a nominal monthly charge to be part of the network once the site is officially launched. They can then choose from three different subscription packages to access content from different geographies and content verticals.

About NewsCollective
NewsCollective is an Online News Bureau where publishers can source content directly from professional journalists. We support several ways of communication, where the journalists can upload ‘Premium’ or ‘Exclusive’ content, create ‘Offer for Articles’ or respond to ‘Request For Articles’ issued by publishers.

NewsCollective leverages the Internet to disrupt the traditional news agency model, changing the way content is created, shared and traded in the media world. It frees publishers from the shackles of the traditional news sources; instead offering them the option to choose and select content best suited to their customer needs.

Journalists now have the opportunity to reach out to a wider network of publishers worldwide, who might be interested in the content they can create in the form of articles, photos and videos.

It is our vision to be the premier destination for content sourcing for publishers and journalists worldwide using the Internet as a medium (the news equivalent of YouTube and Facebook).

For more information, please visit http://www.newscollective.com/