Orato.com and Citizen Journalism
Freelance Writers Populate Orato With First-Person Stories
Jun 6, 2009
Orato.com is a site for writers and citizen journalists to write first-person news stories or editorials. The site encourages anyone to publish their own experiences with newsworthy events. These can be major events, cultural events or activities that will interest online readers.
Both amateur and professional writers are encouraged to submit their personal stories to the site. No training or applications are needed to write for Orato.
Sam Yehia founded the site in 2005, naming it for the Latin word for "I speak." The site won a 2008 Webby Award as one of the top Internet news sites. It's popularity has attracted such diverse celebrity voices as Dog the Bounty Hunter and Yoko Ono.
Correspondents
Orato writers are called corespondents and are paid with a share of the revenue earned from their work. The writers submit their own, original online writing which is then reviewed by the site's editors within 24 hours of submission.
Payment From Orato
Orato pays a flat rate of 20 percent of each article's ad revenue to the freelance writer. Payment is made through PayPal at the end of each month to all writers who meet the minimum payout amount of $10.
Writers can also earn an additional 10 percent of the ad revenue by being promoted to a special correspondent. A promotion is granted to writers who have published at least 25 articles through the site and had five articles chosen as editor's choice articles. Special correspondents can publish their articles immediately through the site without waiting for an editor's approval.
Freelance Writers Keep Copyright
Orato writers keep the copyright to all works they publish through Orato. Writers can choose to publish their items exclusively through Orato or publish it elsewhere simultaneously. Freelance writers grant Orato perpetual rights to publish their pieces online, though the rights are non-exclusive.
Online Journalism
Orato is one of the many sites that are inviting the public to participate in online journalism. When citizens report their own experiences concerning newsworthy events, new perspectives on those events are available. Many people trust citizen journalism to fill in the personal details that traditional journalism may leave out.
Orato 2.0
Orato announced Orato 2.0 in May 2009. The new focus of the site is said by some to be a refocus on keyword articles rather than citizen journalism. The refocus of the site was announced as a recruiting effort to bring more writers to the site and to pay all contributing freelance writers.
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