Examiner.com, the Philip Anschutz-backed site that calls itself “the insider source for everything local,” says it is likely to pass 30,000 active contributors, or “Examiners,”  within days, and 85,000 by 2011. The current tally includes 1,234 active contributors in L.A., 1,189 active contributors in New York, 921 in Chicago, 901 in San Francisco, 900 in Denver and 804 in Washington, D.C.

All 240 major markets are expected to surpass 1,000 Examiners by 3Q 2010. The site also has 500 Examiners in Canada, plus a major network of user-generated content coming from its NowPublic site.

Examiner.com, which is largely search driven, differentiates itself from other content aggregators such as Demand Media and Associated Content by its local focus. It pays its Examiners based on a formula that includes page views and other factors. While some Examiners make little more than coffee money, Examiners who hit on a major story can receive hundreds of dollars per article.

CEO Rick Blair said in a statement that “we have the reach, and now we are working on the depth.”

Former AOL Digital City vet Blair is a featured speaker at Marketplaces 2010, which takes place in San Diego March 22-24.