Hong Kong, Nov 30 - In the pursuit of lower maintenance costs of news gathering and infrastructure, media groups will eventually work with stringers and outsource news production to the public, the chief of Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti said at a global meet here.

"The quest for a wider audience and cost effectiveness will drive decentralisation and innovative delivery platforms for future media. The time of the big newsrooms is coming to an end," said RIA Novosti chief editor Svetlana Mironyuk at a conference of the Global Editor Network in Syangan, Hong Kong.

The network is a professional organisation uniting top media managers from all over the world.

Mironyuk offered as an example RIA Novosti's YouReporter. Ru news portal, whose content is generated by non-professional contributors.

The agency also has a RAPINFO project, aimed at the teenage audience, in which news is presented by rap musicians.

These changes have resulted in a 16-fold growth of RIA Novosti's audience over the past five years, Mironyuk said.

Going after the audience requires perpetual editorial changes, she said.

It needs regular professional training for reporters and editors and a rapid expansion into social networks. She also mentioned development of more advanced multimedia platforms in order to increase penetration among the audience. (IANS)