12 Days of the RRJ: Day 6 – OpenFile

OpenFile is a new local news site that puts readers on the assignment desk. Neither citizen journalism nor top-down news model, OpenFile—which launched in Toronto in May—asks readers to suggest the stories they think need exposure. Topics, often accompanied by multimedia elements, have been as big as the municipal election and as small as a neighbourhood corner store closing. And while the site is not yet a household name, it has recently expanded to Vancouver and Ottawa.

Wendy Gillis spoke to Nick Taylor-Vaisey, the editor of Ottawa’s OpenFile and Karen Pinchin, the editor of Vancouver’s OpenFile, to see how the early days of hyperlocal, collaborative reporting have gone.

Join the neighbourhood conversation with Gillis’s feature on Toronto’s OpenFile in the Ryerson Review of Journalism, which launches on December 14 at the Cadillac Lounge in Toronto.

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by Wendy Gillis

Wendy Gillis was the Senior Editor for the Winter 2011 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism.