Deseret News launches community Web site

SALT LAKE CITY — The Deseret News is going hyperlocal.

This past week, the newspaper's Web site launched its online community site, a new section of deseretnews.com featuring local news from Utah's cities and towns.

The site, deseretnews.com/city/, features city-specific pages where elected officials and residents can post events and bulletins.

"It's a way for the city to report on their news — not necessarily information that would make headline news, but information that people in the community want to know," said Nelda McAllister, Deseret News online community manager.

Examples of such information include details on the Fourth of July parade from the mayor, a report on what's going on in the elementary school from a PTA mom, or a summary on the latest city council meeting from a city activist.

McAllister has spent the past few months gathering input from various city officials on the site.

"These community pages were then created from their input, and that's what I think makes it very unique and completely organic," she added.

South Jordan city spokesman Chip Dawson was involved in the Web site's early development.

"South Jordan feels this will be a great tool to help our residents know what is going on in their community," Dawson said. "We want to be active participants and help make this site another place for residents to get information."

The Deseret News is attempting to aid readers, not replace city Web sites, McAllister said. The Deseret News Web site averages 80,000 daily readers and 1.2 million monthly.

"Many newspapers try this zoning approach, and we've tried it, too," said Joe Cannon, the newspaper's editor. "But this will be a little different from that. It really will be at the granule level of the towns and cities."

Cannon presented the site at the Utah League of Cities and Towns fall convention. He added that he hopes information posted on the site will make it into the paper.

"We literally cannot cover everything," Cannon said. "We hope there will be citizen journalists."

The current beta section is just Phase 1 of the site. Later phases will include interactive city pages with customizable tabs, local links and a map of community hot spots.

For questions or comments on the site, e-mail community@desnews.com.

e-mail: astowell@desnews.com