The New Times opens up to its readers. Starting November 3rd 2020, every person reading The New Times, in Rwanda or beyond can submit a story idea here, on our Readers’ platform. Technically, everyone is now able to share a story they would want The New Times to cover. Have you seen or heard something you want The New Times to investigate? Do you want an answer to a pressing question about Rwanda? Are you just curious? Don’t spare any details, we would like to hear from you. 

Once the idea is submitted, our team will review it to make sure it fits our Guidelines. If that's the case, it will go live and everyone will be able to up-vote or down-vote it. Every day at 6 pm Rwanda time (UTC+2), the most up-voted story will be selected. Your story idea will stay up to five days online. After that, it will be removed from the platform.

The reader who submitted the idea will be contacted by The New Times to discuss if they would like to collaborate with the assigned journalist. This is totally optional.

This platform is a first for a national media in Africa. We hope that with it, The New Times will be able to cover off-radar topics and more local news. This project is funded by Google News Initiative (GNI), after The New Times submitted the winning idea for the GNI Innovation Challenge. 

How can I submit a story?

In detail, here is how it works. If you have an idea, go to this page and click on the button "Add a story idea”. You will be taken to another page where you will be able to put the working title of your story and as many details as you can so that other readers can vote for you. Details will also help the journalist with the information required to do the story, if selected. 

Then, fill out your contact details. These can remain private/anonymous if you tick the box "I don't want my personal details to be shown on the website". 

Your details will stay accessible to The New Times’ newsroom, in case we need to contact you. When you’re done, click on the "Save” button. Once you have saved, you won’t be able to modify your idea. You will then receive a confirmation email saying your idea was submitted. 

If your idea is approved by our editors, it will go live on our Platform. You will receive an email if that's the case. 

How can I vote?

To vote, first go on the platform main page. You will see all the ideas of the day. To vote for one, click on the Story Title. You will be taken to the story’s page where you will see more details about it. 

To up-vote or down-vote a story, simply click on the thumbs-up or thumbs-down button. If you vote for a story, you will be able to leave your email or your WhatsApp number, so you’re informed if the story you up-voted has been covered. You can’t be up-voting and down-voting at the same time, you will have to pick a side. 

We hope that this platform will help you, our dear readers, to get closer to us. If you have any questions or remarks, please send us an email at reader[at]newtimesrwanda[dot]com or via WhatsApp to our number : +250 788 310 999.

Thanks for your time,

The New Times’ newsroom