OhMyNews: declining readership, losses

It looks like the the LA Times is reporting on what appears to be tough times at Oh My News, the world famous South Korean Citizen journalism site. Oh My News is considered to be one of the flagship publications, after Wikipedia, of the world citizen media movement. The article says:

Korea’s OhMyNews was considered the world’s most advanced example of the virtues of “citizen journalism”. Its readership is down (1.5 mil pageviews vs 20 mil in 2002), it’s losing money, expansion into Japan and into English didn’t work.

In some ways, OhmyNews is a victim of its own success. It was a pioneer of citizen journalism, but its ideas of engaging readers, particularly younger ones, have been co-opted by rival news purveyors in South Korea and all the way to CNN and the BBC. Mainstream media websites, including that of the Los Angeles Times, now post videos, photos and comments from the public.

But OhmyNews has encountered other problems. It has faced questions of credibility, partly because of its liberal bent and its army of nonprofessional reporters. In one instance, an advertising agent and citizen reporter wrote a story promoting a company that, it was later discovered, was one of his clients, prompting Oh to issue a public apology. (LAT)

More here. (Thanks Philip)