MUMBAI: Pebble an online marketplace for reporters/journalists has been launched. Pebble is a content marketplace for reporters/journalists across the world to sell original stories at a price decided by them.
The stories will be easily accessible to the publishers /media houses, who can buy these stories of interest for a particular geographical area or genre. The stories are available in all formats and languages.
Currently, News18 Network, Punjab Kesari, Opera, among others, are already using Pebble platform. India is a nation with over 1600 dialects and 30 languages, spoken by more than a million native speakers each. The demand for digital content in language is observing massive growth.
According to a KPMG report, Indian language internet users grew from 42 million in 2011 to 234 million in 2016. An average rural user spends 15% more time consuming digital news than the urban counterpart. Tier 2 users seek unique, hyperlocal news/content relevant to them.
Speaking about the launch, Pebble founder and MD Anil Kumar said, “The content creation in the hyperlocal audience is costly, fragmented and inefficient. Pebble aims to help media organizations gain new markets and audiences. Perhaps for the first time in the world, Pebble allows a stringer to set the price of his content piece. We want to be the default choice of reporters and news publishers in the world, for discovering hyperlocal content and its value in a transparent and efficient manner. Pebble would help the publishers with additional audience and revenue stream. For journalists, it would be a new avenue helping them grow in their career and provide wider reach to their content in all formats.”
Pebble allows journalists to have control over pricing, exclusivity/non-exclusivity, duration of your content in the marketplace. Pebble offers advantages to both publishers and journalists. Publishers pay per story, hence cutting a huge cost on setting up a bureau in smaller locations.
Journalists in smaller areas get an exposure in a digital platform, an additional and assured income and recognition beyond their vicinity. Pebble will add to the power of stringers who would provide hyperlocal content to the publishers.