For Immediate Release:
4/27/09

Contact:
Scott Leadingham, SPJ Communications Coordinator, (317) 927-8000 ext. 211, sleadingham@spj.org,
Liz Bradley, Helium Media Relations, (857) 891-5531,
liz@kelandpartners.com

INDIANAPOLIS – The Society of Professional Journalists announced today a partnership with Helium, the world’s largest writing community. The partnership recognizes the important role citizen journalists play in reporting and disseminating information.

SPJ is inviting 6,000 of Helium’s best citizen journalists to join the ranks of the 100-year old journalism organization. Similarly, SPJ will encourage its members to use Helium as a platform to build their digital writing skills and display their work online to thousands of publishers.

“SPJ has always been committed to inspiring and educating current and future journalists through professional development,” said SPJ President Dave Aeikens. “Partnering with Helium allows us to continue this commitment by providing a vital stepping stone for our members to establish and build their digital credibility, while also opening our doors and embracing those who wish to become better citizen journalists.”

SPJ members who join Helium will have immediate access to a large array of digital writing resources. Additionally, SPJ members will have access to Helium Zones, a revolutionary new micropublishing platform combining the best of multiple social media applications.

“This partnership signifies a considerable elevation in the stature, awareness and quality of citizen journalism as it is perceived within the established journalism profession,” said Helium CEO Mark Ranalli. “We are excited to work with such a prestigious journalistic organization and we look forward to continued growth and success as the world’s largest writing community.”

SPJ has been fostering and training citizen journalists through its innovative Citizen Journalism Academies, held in various cities throughout the country. SPJ will present two upcoming training programs for citizen journalists, May 9 in Denver and June 13 in Minneapolis. Click here for more information on the CJA program.

Helium is the world’s largest community of writers. Since its inception in 2006, Helium writers have published over 1.25 million articles on 125,000 unique topics. Each month more than 3 million people visit Helium.com to read articles on a range of subjects from careers to home & garden, parenting, politics and more. Helium writers earn money and establish digital credibility by publishing articles on Helium, securing writing assignments with publishers through Helium’s Freelance Marketplace, competing in writing contests, and engaging in civilized debate around the issues and causes that are more important to them. Recently named by Writer’s Digest as one of the “101 Best Web sites for Writers,” Helium is a privately held, privately funded company headquartered in Andover, MA. For more information, please visit www.helium.com.

Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. For more information about SPJ, please visit www.spj.org.

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