But over the past five years, Metro’s readership has stagnated. “The problem is, we need to see our readers as currency, and it costs more and more to get new readers,” says Henrik Johansson, Head of Business Development for Sweden-based Metro.

Metro’s solution? Crowdsourcing. In partnership with the photo crowdsourcing company Scoopshot, Metro offers its readers the opportunity to sell photos for publication. Smartphones equipped with Scoopshot allow readers to take photos, set their price, and send them directly to Metro for consideration.

More importantly, it allows Metro to communicate with them, sending them “tasks” – asking them to shoot a house fire, for example, or a car wreck, where a reporter isn’t on the scene. It can also send them advertising tasks as well – an advertiser can offer photo contests and similar initiatives.

Metro has 65,000 “Scoopshooters” in 135 countries. “Crowdsourcing engagers and builds loyalty,” says Mr Johansson. “It works because we can communicate, send them tasks, attractive offers, giveaways. We can promote our own brand.”