A new blog is created every second?

US newspapers try to cash in on blogs

CHICAGO (AFP) - With a new blog created every second, some media futurists have predicted that "citizen journalists" will be producing half of the world's news by 2021.

A number of newspapers are trying to cash in on the trend by creating online venues where bloggers can share local news and opinions.

"It really enforces your leadership in the community as the voice of the community," said Fran Wills, vice president of interactive and product development for the Denver Newspaper Agency, which publishes The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News.

The websites have turned into places where people can share the kind of news that would not fit into a larger local paper like church bake sales or neighborhood chili contests, Wills said Sunday at the Nexpo newspaper technology convention in Chicago.

And they are drawing in readers and advertisers by focusing on individual neighborhoods instead of a large metropolis.

Half of the registered users at Denver's yourhub.com don't read the Post or Rocky Mountain News and 40 to 50 percent of the website's advertisers are new as well, Wills said.