Newspaper & Mailroom

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

Wednesday 01. April 2009 - 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.