The Twin Cities Daily Planet, www.tcdailyplanet.net, an online news source featuring the best of the community press plus the work of citizen-reporters and independent journalists, will launch May 1 with a full complement of local news, features, columns, and interactive community forums.

'Collectively, the citizens of the Twin Cities have far more expertise and insight than can be found in any one newsroom," said Daily Planet Managing Editor Craig Cox, formerly the executive editor of Utne magazine. "The premise of the TC Daily Planet is that new technologies are making it possible for these citizens to become more active and powerful participants in the news production process."

The Daily Planet will offer a convenient portal to more than 30 community newspapers and online publications in an effort to connect readers throughout the Twin Cities with an eclectic and diverse collection of voices rarely heard in the major media.

Local publications whose work is featured on the Daily Planet site range from neighborhood newspapers (Camden Neighborhood News, Northeaster, Whittier Globe, St. Anthony Park Bugle) and metro-wide publications and websites (Pulse, Minnesota Women?s Press, Workday Minnesota) to the local ethnic press (Asian Pages, Hmong Today, Lazos Hispanos, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder) and the newer immigrant press (Hiiraan Online, Mshale, African News Journal). Also among the participants are The Minnesota Daily, The Minneapolis Observer, as well as KFAI radio, and popular local web sites mnspeak.com, mnartists.org, and mnstories.com.

In addition to daily coverage of local news in Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Daily Planet will feature a variety of columnists, including former Star Tribune columnist Jim Klobuchar, former Utne magazine editor Jay Walljasper, as well as popular community-based writers like Shannon Gibney, Lynnell Mickelsen, and Dwight Hobbes.

The Daily Planet will also provide regular national and international headlines from the BBC, The New York Times, the Guardian, and Reuters, as well as audio and video broadcasts from local, national, and international reporters. The site will also host lively community forums where readers can discuss the issues that affect them in their day-to-day lives.

In addition to these professional contributors, the Daily Planet will also publish stories from citizen reporters interested in telling the stories of their communities. These reporters will be offered opportunities to learn basic journalistic skills with the help of former New York Times reporter Doug McGill, who is teaching a series of workshops for aspiring reporters.

"I believe the Daily Planet will become the news source of choice for a wide range of Twin Cities readers looking for a fresh perspective on community life," said Gretchen Nicholls, executive director of the Center for Neighbors and a citizen-editor of the Daily Planet?s Neighborhoods section. "And with its focus on citizen engagement, I hope it will create a new sense of media ownership in a metropolitan area dominated by too few voices."

The Daily Planet is published by the nonprofit Twin Cities Media Alliance (TCMA), which brings together media professionals and engaged citizens to improve the quality, accountability and diversity of the local media. TCMA envisions a participatory democracy in which citizens from all segments of society?and especially those who have been traditionally denied access?are able to use the media as a tool to share information, hold the powerful accountable, build community, and work together for the common good.

For more information
Visit the Daily Planet, www.tcdailyplanet.net