Scoopshot is one of my favorite startups to watch in Finland. I’m a news junkie and it’s a service that just seems like it should be plugged in everywhere. The concept is pretty simple. Scoopshot allows the crowdsourcing of photos or videos for news sources by allowing users to take photos of newsworthy events, like firemen putting out a fire, and then allowing journalists to buy those photos. On the flip side, journalists can ping users of a news event happening, and users can run to the event and take photos or videos to sell.
It’s giving news sources the chance to compete with Twitter and other social media, where news pops up fast. The authenticity and rights issues becomes tricky when using unverified photos floating around on the internet, so Scoopshot adds value to the table worth paying for.
Now Scoopshot has added WAZ, Germany’s largest regional newspaper, and has seen a nice amount of traction already. They write in a press release:
One of the first uses WAZ is putting Scoopshot to is assessing road damage left by the past months’ inclement winter weather. Users are being asked to take pictures of potholes in the area where they live, giving the news staff an insight into the severity of the issue. Photos sent in will be published in print and online alongside written coverage on the issue. Another one of the first creative tasks set by WAZ took a more playful approach and sourced photos of coffee cups. In little over two hours, WAZ received over 2,000 photos from Scoopshot users. In total, more than 26,000 photos were submitted in response to the task, making it a world record of photos submitted to a Scoopshot task.
I sit behind a desk all day, but I’m waiting for my moment to shine by catching something newsworthy and sending it in. Maybe on my next trip to Germany then.
