I have written many times over the past couple of years about the changing way we gather the news each day.
One of the biggest shifts is in an area that is sometimes referred to as "user generated content."
We are partnering with readers much more than we did in the past. We engage with them on Twitter and Facebook. We ask them to work with us on stories.
Today's front page would be a perfect example.
The photo of flames roaring through a home in Clifton Heights was not shot by one of our staff photographers.
As it turns out, we only had one photog on the schedule Monday, and she was on the other end of the county, out in Chichester.
The key to covering breaking news, of course, is being on the scene when news erupts.
That's what happened yesterday when fire broke out in Clifton.
You can get all the details on the fire and the way several residents had to scramble out a window to escape the flames here from reporter Rose Quinn.
But we really needed an image to deliver the dramatic impact of this story.
That's where readers got involved. Today almost everyone has a smartphone capable to taking pictures and video.
When I realized we likely were not going to be able to get our photographer to the scene for anything other than an "after" shot, I went on social media in search of photos of the fire.
It didn't take long before I noticed the shot posted on a website used by Philadelphia area firefighters to document the conditions they deal with every day.
The photo was taken by Mike Jernegan. I was able to contact him via social media and ask him for permission to use the photo.
Eventually we received several more pictures from people who witnessed the scene.
Our preference usually will be to have our own photographers shoot the photos that appear in the pages of our print edition as well as DelcoTimes.com. But the truth is we can't be everywhere.
When breaking news happens, I welcome readers to reach out to us, tell us what you know or saw, and offer any photos or video you have shot.
We will always deliver the news.
But today the process of gathering that news has fundamentally changed. We used to talk "at" readers. Now we are talking with them, asking them to join us in this process of chronicling what is happening here in Delco every day.
If you have something you'd like to share, reach out to me at editor@delcotimes.com.
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