Let's try this and see if it works

Let us be the first to break news about the Herald-Press, before you see it in the Herald-Press.
The H-P will start using CommunitySportsDesk, a web-based service that allows youth and recreation leagues to use the company's software to create news stories and post information about teams. There's a lot of buzz words about "hyper-local" and "reverse-publishing" that are the new hot terms in the newspaper industry.
For sure, youth leagues don't get reported on much in any newspaper, so this is a way to get that information published locally, albeit not in the print product, whch has less and less coverage all the time.
The company line will talk about getting coverage for this segment of the communty, but what it is is they are trying to drive more traffic to the newspaper's web product in hopes of seeling some advertising. There aren't many statistics yet about how well this kind of things works, but advertising is drying up with any newspaper product, and the general consensus is that this won't work, either.

The coverage from the Herald-Press is also drying up, but that's for another blog entry at another time.

Here's the information from Editor&Publisher, a newspaper trade publication:

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Paxton Group Deploys CommunitySportsDesk

By E&P Staff

Published: February 26, 2009 3:56 PM ET

NEW YORK Paxton Media Group has selected CommunitySportsDesk (CSD) to collect, organize and present community sports and recreation content for its online and print products in five Indiana communities where Paxton publishes daily newspapers.

CSD's structured software collects, manages and serves user-generated content online and back in print, according to Group Publisher Neal Ronquist.

"It's like having extra stringers, coached by the software, working in a uniform way to provide content that we couldn't otherwise reach," Ronquist said in a statement. "The result is an online site that stays fresh and keeps the community engaged."

Tentatively branded as CentralIndianaSportsNetwork.com, it will include online advertising and reverse-publishing options for Paxton's five central Indiana properties, the Marion Chronicle-Tribune, the Peru Tribune, Wabash Plain Dealer, The Times of Frankfort and the Huntington Herald-Press.

CommunitySportsDesk is a hosted Web-driven product of Media Innovations LLC, a subsidiary of privately owned newspaper publisher United Communications Corp., Kenosha, Wis., where it was the Kenosha News developed the flagship Kenosha Sports Network.

CSD Managing Director Bill Dunbar said the Paxton group will provide strong community engagement for further development and extension of patent-pending CSD technology and business modeling.

CSD provides a database-driven structure to collecting and displaying grassroots sporting events, creating mini-sports pages for teams and online sports sections for community leagues. It also offers back-office functionality for league administrators. At the option of the media affiliate, selected results can "roll up" electronically for publication in print. CSD staff trains and supports media companies, leagues and team representatives.


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