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Thousands of people in Guangdong Province are earning lucrative second incomes by selling tip-offs and stories to local newspapers.

Yang Mingwei, a teacher in the city of Zhaoqing, earns more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,250) annually from informing media outlets about incidents and producing articles.

The sum he receives matches that of his full-time teaching salary.

He said that he has provided about 4,000 news tips or articles to newspapers in his city and Guangzhou, capital of the province, since 1993.

The 36-year-old has effectively become a professional provider of tip-offs to newspapers.

Yang scans newspapers every day to catch up on current events and offer ideas for stories.

During the summer and winter vacations, he spends most of his time selling stories and tip-offs, mainly on social issues, to the three major newspaper groups in Guangzhou. He gets free train fares to Guangzhou because of "good news stories" he has provided in the past on the local railway company.

He has become well known by local reporters and has built up a large contacts book, consisting of former classmates, fellow residents in Zhaoqing and lawyers.

He even goes out to cover some events alongside professional reporters, with transportation and accommodation expenses paid for by the newspapers.

Newspapers in Guangdong and the rest of the country started to pay for tip-offs in the 1990s, when competition began to grow.

One newspaper in Guangzhou reportedly benefited from 1,500 tip-offs last year, paying out more than 130,000 yuan (US$16,000).

Payments offered by newspapers vary.

Last month, one person received 100 yuan (US$12) for informing a newspaper that a 4-year-old boy had survived falling from the third floor of a building after landing on a clothes-hanging structure.

Another newspaper paid twice the amount to a different person for the same tip.

Dong Tiance, a professor with the College of Journalism and Communication at Guangzhou-based Jinan University, said: "The phenomenon (of tip-offs) can be attributed to increasing competition among newspapers."

Publications were always looking to expand their sources for stories, he added.

With digital video cameras and camera-equipped mobile phones becoming more and more affordable, it has become easier for everyday people to capture news events.

A graduate of Chinese literature from a college in Central China's Hunan Province, Yang said he was different to those who sold tip-offs on trivial subjects, such as minor accidents in their neighbourhoods.

He said by writing his own stories as well, he was able to explore some important issues.

Several of his pieces have even won awards.

"I feel I am doing something good when I report or write about certain problems. It is like a social responsibility, " he said.

(China Daily May 8, 2006)