Mobile Media Lab Kicks Off With GameTimePa.com’s High School Football Coverage
New York, NY (August 31, 2012) – Digital First Media, which operates MediaNews Group, Journal Register Company and Digital First Ventures, today announced the launch of the NewsVroom, the York Daily Record’s mobile media lab.
The NewsVroom – a Ford Econoline van packed with WiFi, six tables, six pop-up tents that can be set up for workshops and demonstrations, six laptops, six iPads and six cellphones – will be the York Daily Record’s and GameTimePa.com’s mobile media center for tonight’s West York and Central York high school football season opener.
“This is more than a billboard on wheels or a portable desk, this is a traveling classroom. The NewsVroom is an extension of the community outreach we have been doing in recent years,” said Randy Parker, Managing Editor of the York Daily Record and Sunday News. “We can set up a mobile classroom at any event or location and have all the tools we need to demonstrate the latest tools we use to serve this community with news and information. Now that the NewsVroom is on the road, we’ll be asking our readers to offer ideas for us to put it to use.”
The NewsVroom will be utilized for breaking news events as those events arise but the mobile media lab’s primary focus is as a mobile classroom. The NewsVroom is outfitted with equipment designed to help the community tell their stories.
“We will use this as a clinic, as a workshop,” Mr. Parker said. “At a political debate, we will use it to teach voters about the many new ways we have for them to help set the agenda. At a high school football game, we will show how our mobile apps provide live scores and how we offer livestreaming of big games each week.”
The NewsVroom marks the second mobile newsroom launched this year by Digital First Media. The Pioneer Press’ and TwinCities.com’s TCRover rolled onto the streets of Twin Cities region in July. Mobile newsrooms for the Register in New Haven, Conn. and the Mercury News in San Jose, Calif. will launch this fall.
The mobile newsrooms are part of Digital First Media’s 14 new community newsroom projects being launched this year.
Digital First Media announced earlier this year that the Company was launching 14 new community-focused newsroom projects following the Company’s successful 2010 launch of its open-to-the-public newsroom at The Register Citizen in Torrington, Conn.
“The NewsVroom is about meeting our readers in the community. It’s about sharing stories, sharing techniques and learning from each other,” said Steve Buttry, Digital First Media’s Digital Transformation Editor. “The NewsVroom is designed to go to our audience, not ask our audience to come to us.”
The NewsVroom will also be making stops at the York Fair from Sept. 7 to 16 and has been invited to the White Rose Thunder Motorcycle Show and the York Halloween Parade.
For more on the NewsVroom, visit http://www.yorkblog.com/newsvroom/ and https://www.facebook.com/NewsVroom.
About Digital First Media
Digital First Media (www.DigitalFirstMedia.com) is headquartered in New York City, and jointly manages MediaNews Group and Journal Register Company. Digital First Media reaches 61.5 million Americans each month through more than 800 multi-platform products across 18 states.
About MediaNews Group, Inc.
MediaNews Group, Inc. (www.medianewsgroup.com) is the nation’s second largest newspaper company as measured by circulation, with headquarters in Denver, Colorado. MediaNews Group and its affiliated companies publish 57 daily newspapers and more than 100 non-daily publications in 11 states.
About Journal Register Company
Journal Register Company is a leader in local news and information in 10 states. The Company’s more than 350 multi-platform products reach an audience of 21 million people each month. For more information visit the company website at www.JournalRegister.com.
About Digital First Ventures
Digital First Ventures (DFV) is focused on helping media entrepreneurs incubate, accelerate and validate their start-up companies in the news, content, sales and audience development space. As a division of Digital First Media – which operates more than 800 media products serving 61.5 million customers each month and annual revenues of more than $1.4 billion – DFV is ideally suited to accelerate value creation for media start-ups.
For more information contact:
Jonathan Cooper
Vice President Media Relations & Employee Communications
Digital First Media
jcooper@digitalfirstmedia.com
(215) 867-2022
