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The Sun-Times News Group Launches Pluck to Power News Participation and Social Networking for Readers Online

Posted on: Wednesday, 3 September 2008, 09:00 CDT

Pluck(R) Corporation, the industry-leading provider of social media capabilities to publishers, brands and retailers, today announced that the Sun-Times News Group has deployed the Pluck social media platform to power reader forums, blogs and communities on the newspaper's online news site - www.suntimes.com - and across its portfolio of digital properties, including PioneerLocal.com, SuburbanChicagoNews.com, SouthtownStar.com, and Post-Trib.com. Some of the first Pluck features the news organization deployed on its web site include comments on articles, reader recommendations, and contextually related blog posts from the BlogBurst syndication network.

"The Sun-Times News Group is pleased to work with Pluck to make news more participatory for our readers," said Catherine Lanucha, Director of Content for the Sun-Times News Group. "By adding new capabilities to our site, such as reader comments, photos and blogs, we are significantly expanding interactivity with our readers."

Pluck SiteLife enables online properties to engage site visitors with a complete range of social media capabilities including user comments, ratings, recommendations, reviews, photo and video sharing, forums and social networking profiles called Personas. SiteLife includes easy-to-deploy widgets and a robust set of platform-level APIs that allow site publishers to tailor a social media experience to the needs of their distinct audiences. Pluck BlogBurst is the world's largest blog syndication service, bringing some of the best blogs on a variety of topics to mass media audiences. Pluck social media are already live on more than 300 top brand, media and retail sites, including those of Circuit City, Conde Nast, The Guardian and USA TODAY, serving more than 2.5 billion interactions each month.

"The Sun-Times News Group is continuing to bring the next generation of readers into the new media fold by giving them multiple ways to participate in national and local news online," said Dave Panos, CEO of Pluck and executive vice president of Demand Media. "By working with the Sun-Times News Group, we can ensure that the social media capabilities their readers want are front-and-center in their daily news experience."

About the Sun-Times News Group

Sun-Times News Group ("STNG") is dedicated to being the premier source of local news and information for the greater Chicago area. Its media properties include the Chicago Sun-Times and suntimes.com as well as newspapers and websites serving more than 200 communities across Chicago. STNG's parent company is Sun-Times Media Group, Inc. (OTCBB:SUTM) (www.thesuntimesgroup.com).

About Pluck Corporation

Pluck Corporation, a Demand Media company, provides social media solutions that empower leading media companies, brands, and retailers to integrate open content, community and social networking into their web properties to drive audience traffic and revenue. Pluck customers include more than 300 premium properties from market leaders like USA Today, Circuit City, Discovery, Conde Nast, Real Networks, Scotts and The Guardian. Pluck is based in Austin, Texas. More information on Pluck offerings can be found at www.pluck.com.

Pluck is a registered trademark and BlogBurst and SiteLife are trademarks of Pluck Corp. All other company and product names mentioned are used only for identification and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Source: Business Wire

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