Glasgow, Scotland - Online photo agency Getty Images has decided to shutter Scoopt, a citizen journalism site it acquired in 2007, PaidContent reported. The service, which offered a cut of profits from user-uploaded photos sold to news agencies, will cease accepting submissions on Friday, and close down entirely by March 6.

Andover, Mass. - Helium, an online "citizen journalism hub," announced on Wednesday that it has raised $17 million in its first round of venture capital, led by Signature Capital.

San Francisco - The person who posted a fake story to CNN's iReport.com citizen journalism site earlier this month that said Apple (NASD: AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack was an 18-year-old, Bloomberg reported. Investigators have so far found no evidence that the teenager attempted to profit from the 5.4% plunge in Apple's share price that resulted from the false report.

New York - Apple (NASD: AAPL) has denied a report posted on CNN's iReport citizen journalism site that said its chief executive, Steve Jobs, had suffered "a major heart attack" and was rushed to an emergency room, Reuters reported.

New York - CBS (NYSE: CBS) on Monday announced the launch of "EyeMobile," a new application for Apple's iPhone that lets users upload newsworthy photos and videos for potential use by the company's news organization. Users may also view content uploaded by other citizens, leave comments, and embed uploaded content to third-party sites. While CBS is the first broadcast news organization with such an application, CNN's iReport and Fox News' uReport offer similar services.

Vancouver, B.C. - NowPublic, an online "citizen journalism" network, announced on Thursday that it has acquired Truemors, venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki's site "dedicated to the free-flow of the news rumor mill."

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace announced on Thursday that it partnered with NBC News (NYSE: GE) and MSNBC.com for a "Decision '08 Convention Contest," which will award two citizen journalists credentials to attend the Republican or Democratic National Conventions in the fall. Five finalists will be chosen by a panel of judges from the organizers based on their two-minute video submission answers to the questions: "Why do you vote?"; "Why are you the best person for this job?"; and "How will you stand out in the crowd and get the scoop no one else can?"

San Bruno, Calif. - Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube on Friday debuted a new channel category for citizen journalists on its site, as "Reporter" became an option alongside other channel tags such as Comedian, Guru, Musician and YouTuber. The Reporter channel designation is intended for users who upload "on-the-scene" coverage of local news and events, students producing newscasts, and also professional journalists using YouTube as an additional outlet for their work.

Atlanta - Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) CNN plans this week to launch iReport.com, a new site that will feature citizen journalism photos and videos submitted by CNN viewers. CNN said it has received over 100,000 submissions since launching its iReport feature in 2006, including nearly 10,000 in January alone, but has used less than 10% of all submissions in its broadcasts or on its website. Unlike the iReport submissions that CNN has utilized thus far, the content uploaded to iReport.com site will be not be subject to fact-checking.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV on Thursday announced that it has recruited 51 citizen journalists to cover the 2008 elections from a youth perspective, and tailor their reports for mobile devices. Members will contribute weekly, multimedia reports in the form of video clips, blogs, animation, photos and podcasts, which will be distributed via a soon-to-launch WAP site, MTV Mobile, Think.MTV.com and to the more than 1,800 sites in the Associated Press Online Video Network.

Paris - Agence France-Presse (AFP), the French newsgathering agency, announced on Wednesday that it has taken a minority stake in Scooplive, a service that lets users sell their pictures and videos on current news and receive a commission.

Vancouver, Canada - NowPublic, a Vancouver, Canada-based citizen journalism site, has raised $10.6 million in its first round of financing, led by Rho Ventures and Rho Canada, the Associated Press reported on Monday.

Washington - Washingtonpost.com on Monday launched LoudounExtra.com, a new site featuring community-level news and events focused on Loudoun County, Virginia. Geared toward local residents, businesses and organizations, the site signals the Post's entry into the market for hyperlocal content, just as Vienna-based Backfence, which ran 13 hyperlocal sites in the DC, San Francisco and Chicago areas, has decided to shutter its operations. The site makes use of user-generated content, including photos and video, to enhance traditional reporting.

New York - After closing its 13 "hyperlocal" citizen journalism news sites in D.C., Chicago and the Bay Area late last month, Backfence has announced that it will shut down, citing "business issues," the Associated Press reported.

Las Vegas - CBS Television Stations announced on Monday that it has partnered with Microsoft to enable its local TV stations to collect user-generated news, photos and videos.

Palo Alto, Calif. - News aggregator Topix announced on Monday a redesign of its site and a new focus on citizen journalism. The site, which also changed its domain from .net to .com, will now allow anyone to submit local news online or via cell phones, or become local news editors who will combine user-generated submissions with Topix's locally categorized news from 50,000 traditional news and blog sources. Founded in 2004, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Topix claims about 10 million monthly unique visitors.

New York - Ground Report on Tuesday announced the launch of its site that allows amateurs to publish original articles, rate content and earn a share of advertising revenues. Stories posted to the site are given prominence based on ratings by users, and will be published exclusively under Creative Commons licenses. "GroundReport's mission is simple: create an independent news source and give everyone a voice," said GroundReport founder and CEO Rachel Sterne, who previously held positions at the United Nations and LimeWire.

Seattle - Getty Images, a provider of stock photography services, announced on Monday that it has acquired Glasgow, Scotland-based Scoopt, an aggregator and distributor of user-generated, newsworthy photos and videos.