So, exactly how did the (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press succeed in its efforts at crowdsourcing with its investigation into utility rates in Cape Coral, Fla.?

Earlier in the summer, the News-Press asked for citizens help in investigating ongoing concerns over price hikes in their utility assessments, due to extensions of the systems. The community responded in full force – and through the newspaper (not because of it) did the journalism that got their concerns addressed.

The News-Press operation has gained some notoriety since Gannett’s big reorganization announcement last week. Gannett’s decision to rename the newsrooms at its 90 newspapers as “information centers” is part of a larger philosophical move to focus on cross-platform distribution and citizen journalism. For the most part, those inside and outside the industry applauded the move and a recent investigation by the News-Press newspaper and Web operation, owned by Gannett, has been cited as an early success story in the effort. (For another perspective, check out this and for good roundup coverage, check out Jeff Howe’s summary.)

But, what about these citizen journalists? What motivates citizens to take part in such an enterprise?

As one citizen journalist put it, “it helps to have a dog in the race.”

In this case, it was an overwhelming reaction to a perceived injustice. Upset and unwilling to take it anymore, many within the Cape Coral community took the opportunity to help the Fort Myers reporters when the newspaper and Web operation posted a “Help Us Investigate” query in relation to the city’s decision to raise sewer and water rates because of an expansion of lines.

Kate Marymont, the executive editor of the News-Press’s integrated newspaper and Web operations said the query “tapped into a nerve” within the Cape Coral community.

That would be putting it mildly.

Sal Grosso has been pushing for reforms within the Cape Coral utilities system since the early 1990s. Dissatisfied with City Hall, he has traveled to the state capital in Tallahassee and even ran for a City Council seat to help bring about what he saw were misplaced priorities, bad spending decisions and worse.

When the News-Press asked for help in their investigation, Grosso had been waiting.

“I’ve probably sent more than 30 e-mails over the past year to the people at the News-Press,” Grosso said. “It’s had all manners of documentation – which showed that there were properties within the assessment area with big discounts.”

Marymont describes Cape Coral as a “community that likes to talk.” That, combined with the financial hit that many would take with assessment increases, led to a community mobilization that surprised most at the News-Press.

“We have more than ten thousand people on our forums. But, the response here (with the story) was different. People were searching for documents and asking questions.”

The commitment to the story was there for many homeowners. J.C. Rodriquez, one of the founders of the Cape Coral Watchdogs, says he has been fighting City Hall on this issue for three years. He has uncovered dozens of internal city memos, which he says he has forwarded to the FBI. While the city cut assessment fees by 30 percent as a result of the investigation, the story continues – both online and in the community.

“This began by going to City Hall and complaining, then we started sharing ideas with those at the newspaper,” said Rodriquez. “We did a lot of research, fact-finding missions. We tried to uncover as much information as we could.”

Much of the debate over the assessments, and much of the resulting stories, unfolded on the News-Press unmoderated discussion boards. One city homeowner, Lloyd Duhon, began his involvement with the story on the discussion boards. But, some of the discussions turned nasty, so he decided to start his own blog, the Cape Informer, where he reported his own findings.

The News-Press was ahead of the game going into the investigation because it began integrating its Web and newspaper operations about three years ago. She describes her reporters as MoJos (mobile journalists) – who will go out and shoot the “first day of school photos” and then come back and do and construct a gallery for the Web site. A photo or two may run in the newspaper and the story written will run across platforms, including their Spanish-language weekly.

Also, this is not the first time the News-Press has reached out to its community to generate content. During the hurricanes of 2004, Marymont and the News-Press editors asked community members to help them keep FEMA honest by submitting photos and stories.

It’s all part of a new era of journalism, says Marymont. She avoids the jargon of crowdsourcing and citizen journalism and just gets excited about the new watchdog role being adopted by members of the community.

“It’s been fascinating to watch this expansion of watchdog journalism,” she says. “In a way, we’re deputizing watchdog journalists – it’s very exciting.”

So, what are the lessons learned? Marymont passed along some keys for how news organizations can help make crowdsourcing work:

* Be ready to respond. The News-Express vastly underestimated the response they would receive to their query and many emails and phone calls went unanswered in the first few days. The editors scrambled and recovered but Marymont says you’ll send the wrong message if you’re not ready to respond and interact with citizens. “People wanted to be acknowledged and to see their input acted upon.”

* Be ready to give up control. Perhaps the single biggest issue with reporters and editors – editorial control. Marymont said staffers came along at different paces but that in the end the success of the story was what convinced many that the process worked. “Every time we turned around, a new document was being posted or a new discussion thread was taking place out there.”

* Online stories evolve differently. Perhaps Marymont’s biggest frustration came when the Web site would have information or a story that was late getting into the newspaper. “The story built itself. The public shaped it and we had to get used to that. We had to learn that online development of a story and the development of a print story take different paths.

Finally, what may have helped the News-Press succeed more than anything else is that they adopted the personae of a true community newspaper. The editors set up a Town Hall meeting with city officials which many residents came to, well-armed to quiz city officials.

As Marymont says, community members got a taste of investigative journalism and they were hooked.