Courier To Crowdsource Interviews

Visitors to the Halifax Courier’s website now have the chance to put their questions to some well known faces.

The crowdsourcing experiment is a joint project between the newspaper and interactive website Yoosk, which enables the public to quiz celebrities and public figures.

Registered users can submit their questions and fellow visitors then vote on the five best teasers to be put to the interviewee.

First to face the results from the crowdsourcing initiative will be BBC regional weatherman Paul Hudson.

And among the questions he could be facing are: “What will the weather in Halifax be like in early June 2040?” and “Did you predict the Sheffield floods?”

The final five posers and Hudson’s responses will be available online and in the Courier’s print edition.

Johnson Press’s group editorial content manager told journalism.co.uk that the joint project hands control over to users.

Mark Woodward said: “In print we have always given readers the inside track on what is going on in their community - with this partnership we can take this a stage further and put the reader in the driving seat when it comes to questioning local personalities and people in power.”

He added: “The ability for readers to then rate and judge responses means accountability is also taken to another level.”


[Disclosure: Halifax Courier is a Johnston Press publication.]