Launched in August 2010, Blottr is a user generated news service where anyone can capture, report and collaborate on news, news as events unfold, whether at a local or national level. It aims to engage people and enable them to uncover and distribute hyper-local news that would otherwise remain unknown.

Blottr uses technology that recognises users’ location and localises relevant top stories. It also enables users to create their very own news agenda as well as develop that of others.

Currently serving Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leicester, Leeds, London and Manchester, with Newcastle and Liverpool launching soon, Blottr says it is one of the fastest growing news service in the UK.

Some figures

- 140,000 registered users
- 1,800 active contributors
- 1.6m unique visitors in September 2011
- 20 percent growth per month

Q & A with Adam Baker, Founder of Blottr

Awards and recognitions

Blottr, “the people powered news service”:

- ranked 7th in the Smarta Top 100 UK startups
- was highly commended as one of the UK media startups at The Europas in the ‘Best Education, Recruitment and Media Award’ category 2011
- won the Innovative Business of the Year in the Startups Awards 2011
- received the “Most Disruptive Technology” award at the Tech City UK Entrepreneurship Festival
- was named as one of eleven of the best citizen journalism sites in the world by The Next Web.

“We won the “Innovative Business of the Year” category [in the Startups Awards 2011] because of our disruptive business model and our role in citizen media,” says Communications Manager Jerry Boston. “The term ‘most disruptive technology’  comes in the new media context referring to how Blottr has changed the way news is gathered through advancements in technology, and the way empower people to report news live has been hugely responsive. Mainstream media organisations are unable to keep pace with this level of street journalism which has innovated the news industry.”

Newspoint technology

Blottr opened up its technology - known as Newspoint - to external publishers enablin user-generated content on any blog or website. As well as creating their own content, users can contribute to other people’s stories, allowing them to develop over time.

International expansion

Drawing on its success in the UK, Blottr in October 2011 opened two sister sites in France (initially focus on Paris, Lyon and Marseille) and Germany (initially focusing on Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich) and is planning to launch into 10 new countries over the next 12 months. 

Published: December 16, 2011