It's no great secret that bad news makes good copy. Blizzards, floods, famine, earthquakes.
Journalists know how to cover the calamities.
Disaster News Network is primarily concerned with U.S. humanitarian response to current disasters and as such, can give you a new source of quotable contacts on breaking stories. The site, produced by a Baltimore technology company called Threshold Media Limited, is sponsored by the Church World Service and 11 other religious groups organized to respond to disasters. Staffed by reporters who have worked for wire services or daily newspapers, the DNN page is impressive in the fleetness of its own response. For instance, within hours of the Alaska Airlines jetliner crash off the coast of California several weeks ago, the site revised its home page to feature an original 500-word story by a DNN staff writer. Stories here read much like the usual wire dispatches, except that most have additional information about humanitarian relief efforts, especially by religious groups.