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MailTribune.com and DailyTidings.com Launch Hyper-Local Social-Networking Sites

Posted on: Tuesday, 31 March 2009, 15:00 CDT

MEDFORD, Ore., March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Ottaway's Southern Oregon Media Group has launched a pair of social networking sites as a means of fostering community conversation and connecting area residents around issues and interests that matter most to them.

MailTribune.com and DailyTidings.com launched www.roguecurrent.com and www.connectashland.com, respectively, in early March. The sites were built to see how Southern Oregon and Northern California respond to the opportunity to connect on a local social-networking platform.

Built on the Ning platform, each of the sites offers members the opportunity to create their own pages, join interest groups and post blogs, photos, videos and music for others to see. In the first few weeks members have formed interest groups around such diverse topics as "green" living, gluten-free diets, history, bicycling, computer repair, pets and the arts.

"Although www.roguecurrent.com and www.connectashland.com are similar to established social-networking sites like Facebook, people who live here and join are likely to see many more familiar faces and discussions about issues relevant to our region," said Julie Wurth, online editor for the Mail Tribune.

"Our goal for the site is to connect all of Ashland in a single online community," said Mike Green, web editor for Ashland Daily Tidings. "We want to become the first city in the nation to connect its residents online in a single social networking site that caters to our local community."

Southern Oregon Media Group's primary interest in this is to inspire and create a home for conversation about the community.

DailyTidings.com also has recently launched Ashland Nightlife , a multimedia guide to things to do in Ashland that includes videos produced by Southern Oregon University students.

ABOUT OTTAWAY NEWSPAPERS

Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. (www.ottaway.com), is the Local Media Group of Dow Jones. Ottaway operates eight community media groups around the country - including the Southern Oregon Media Group - that collectively are comprised of 8 daily and 15 weekly newspapers, several lifestyle magazines and other niche publications, and a multitude of affiliated Web sites in seven states.

Media Contact: Sean Polay Product Manager, Distributed Media spolay@ottaway.com 774.313.6093

ABOUT DOW JONES

Dow Jones & Company (www.dowjones.com) is a News Corporation company (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV; www.newscorp.com). Dow Jones is a leading provider of global business news and information services. Its Consumer Media Group publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch and the Far Eastern Economic Review. Its Enterprise Media Group includes Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Factiva, Dow Jones Client Solutions, Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Financial Information Services. Dow Jones owns 50% of SmartMoney and 33% of STOXX Ltd. and provides news content to radio stations in the U.S.

SOURCE Ottaway Newspapers, Inc.

Source: PR Newswire

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