A new company is trying to help failing newspapers do more with less. Massachusetts-based Helium offers a fee-based software widget that assists papers in finding and picking stories from
their readers.
Reader submissions are evaluated and ranked by 150,000 Helium users on a Web site run by Helium, as a way to identify stories most appropriate for the newspaper's site or
print publication. So far, GateHouse Media's State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill., has signed up for the program.
The service is tapping into a gnawing problem in the news business: Staff resources are evaporating, but the demand for news, especially online, is growing.