Online newspaper web sites bring communities together

The Sun-Times News Group, which publishes the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of other publications serving 120 communities across the Chicago area, launched the STNG Network, a web portal that links all of their publications. Basically, it's an easy way to read the Sun-Times or your local publication, and be able to go to another local publication's site. They call it "hyper-local."

This makes sense. Communities are so small and it's not as if we only care about what happens in our town. Where regional newspapers are limited by space in printing, say, the entire police blotter for every town in its coverage area, the STNG network allows a reader to check out the full police blotter from the Vernon Hills PD and then jump over to the Evanston PD's blotter in a matter of seconds. You don't have to remember dozens of URLs.

Management at the Sun-Times Media Group is hoping that this new site will help lagging revenue numbers. From Editor and Publisher:

"The weak advertising market in Chicago has made our advertising sales reorganization extremely challenging and underscores the need to remain committed to our strategy," CEO Gordon Paris said in a statement. "We believe that our focus on selling the STNG network, combined with our exciting new media initiatives will allow us to offer enhanced and more targeted advertising solutions to our customers."

Newspapers are gaining more readers online as they struggle with print circulation. Simple innovations like the STNG Network ought to help media companies capitalize on the growth of the online news consuming public.