The newspaper industry, both with its hard-copy and online products, has been buzzing lately about community-generated content.

There's a new push to include material that comes directly from people outside the newsroom. Proponents say such stories, columns, photos and videos will help broaden the variety of offerings, and it likely could attract more reader interest, especially from people directly associated with the writer or photographer.

I do see the value in this trend, though I also see some dangers. I hope newspapers are not moving toward a product that essentially drops all journalistic standards by posting reader-generated content without any thought about whether it's accurate or fair. I also hope newspapers do not look to cut down paid staff because they can get so much content now for free.

I'm optimistic neither of those situations will happen, at least on a large scale.

So how has The Citizen incorporated community-generated content? A few examples:

€ Our Lake Life section is filled with great material produced outside the walls of our building. We have a large group of community columnists - from town historians to dentists - who supply regular columns. Every day on that section's calendar page, you can find a community photo usually submitted by a reader. During the week, these pictures often showcase those important moments in people's lives, from children receiving awards to nonprofits getting a donation. On Sundays, we have the Family Scrapbook photo.

€ We also have a feature that allows children to contribute to the newspaper. When space allows, our weather report features a Cloudcatcher, the name we've given to pictures related to the weather submitted by students.

€ The sports section is also always willing to publish reader photos, such as a big fish just caught in one of the lakes or a championship youth sports team.

€ Don't forget a time-honored example of community-generated content - letters to the editor.

€ We've also developed a number of features at the www.auburnpub.com Web site to provide user-created content. You can post opinions on just about every article, letter, column or blog that appears on the site. And you can contribute Two Cents items by calling the hotline at 253-5311 ext. 292 or e-mailing twocents@lee.net.

We've also got a new section online that's waiting to be filled up with user photos. Click on the Your Photos button in the multimedia section to see what that's all about.

Executive editor Jeremy Boyer's columns appear Saturdays in The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net