Newswire Agence France Press (AFP) has bought a minority stake in Scooplive, a French citizen journalism portal that gives contributors commission on contributions sold to news media. The size of the stake and the amount offered weren’t disclosed but AFP teamed for the bid with former French minister and TV exec Xavier Gouyou Beauchamps’s company IAM. Scooplive started only last year, aiming to create an “independent reporters community with a commercial goal”. Like the UK’s Scoopt, it taps newsdesk and picture desk contacts to sell contributors’ material, promising contributors a 75-85 percent cut of the fee. As part of the deal, however, Scooplive is renamed CitizenSide. The site, says the release, aims at “qualified participative information by developing a favoured relationship between amateur and professional media”. AFP presidentPierre Louette said: “We intend to offer them the possibility to use the technological platform under their own brand.”