Considering the growing demand for sports news in Russia and globally, Russian news agency RIA Novosti plans to launch its sports arm in October, Journalism.co.uk reported Friday.

The agency will offer multimedia sports content, and will be headed by Dmitry Tugarin, former adviser to the chief of the Russian federal agency for sport and physical education.

Meanwhile, the news agency also announced a project in which it awards readers, to encourage user-generated content on its recently launched Citizenship Journalism website, "You're a reporter," Journalism.co.uk reported last week. Readers can contribute to the news site through SMS, e-mail or by uploading content with tools available on the website.

According to the scheme, readers will be rewarded with basic points for submitting different types of content that include news tips, images and videos, according to Journalism.co.uk. Depending on the quality of content submitted and considering its performance on generating traffic and maximum page views, readers will be rewarded with points, which can be swapped for prizes.