He hopes CER, which won an award for excellence at NetMedia 2000 European Online Journalism, is providing an alternative. With an editorial purpose in mind, Stroehlein said the founders did a few calculations, found sponsors, and a wide-pipe bandwidth before launching the site. Out of the 50,000 words published each week, only half of it is regularly commissioned. We get 100,000 to 120,000 words a week. Two or three articles a week out of the blue are worth publishing.
Contributors get something in return for their efforts.
For CV-padding, it's quite good. Having colleagues worldwide also provides sources for many volunteers' day jobs, said Stroehlein. That work can take up a lot of her time. CER's work has been recognized by other publishers. The site has exchanged content with newspaper sites such as Guardian Unlimited in the U.K. and Kurier Poranny in Poland.