CNN creates web page for viewers to upload submissions

CNN, like any news organization, has always taken viewer-submitted videos and photos and used them if they thought that a) the submission was newsworthy, and b) neither they nor any other news organization has the footage. The submission procedure was always a bit of a kludge: call the network, say you have something, send it in, wait to see it on TV. Now, though, the cable network is making it easy for people to submit videos and photos.

Called CNN Exchange, it allows viewers to upload videos, photos, audio, and graphics. They will also take submissions via e-mail. Selected "I-Reports", vetted and verified by CNN staffers, will be shown on the site, but viewers will not be paid if their submissions are used. The site, in the works for months, is debuting just as YouTube videos of the devestation in Lebanon have been shown across the web, so CNN's timing is pretty good here, to say the least.