Carthage Press, Neosho Daily to offer new "social media experience"

Readers of the Carthage Press, Neosho Daily News, Pittsburg Morning Sun, and the rest of GateHouse Media's 400 plus publications can expect a new social media experience in the near future, according to a company news release. Why don't they put some of this money into adding reporters and beefing up their local news product?

GateHouse Media, Inc. (“GateHouse Media”) and Crowdynews announced today that GateHouse Media will be using Crowdynews’ technology to implement social media integration on all GateHouse Media websites. The first sites launched the week of July 29 with full implementation planned by the end of the year.

Crowdynews is a rapidly growing technical startup specializing in social media integration for online publishers worldwide.  GateHouse Media will be implementing Crowdynews’ widgets on its portfolio of more than 400 U.S. websites, which combined, reach more than 12 million readers on a weekly basis across the Web and mobile platforms. The widgets will pull in relevant tweets and other social media commentary around key local topics and will appear next to all GateHouse Media stories.

“Crowdynews’ technology will truly enrich the experience on our websites by displaying relevant social media commentary that is applicable to specific stories,” said David Arkin, Vice President for Content & Audience for GateHouse Media. “While the content our journalists create is extremely rich, we love the idea of being able to provide more voices — especially those in the social space — around that content.”

“We worked closely with GateHouse Media to define the needs and approach of this groundbreaking tool,” said Edwin Kuipers, CEO and founder of Crowdynews. “This technology adds a completely new dimension to GateHouse Media’s content and audience experience.  We place high value on this relationship and look forward to continuing to explore ways to use social media to enrich content.”