News

Creative Circle announces several new products at NEXPO

High school sites, a directory and enhancements for classified and community sites highlight this year's offerings

For Immediate Release
Contact: Bill Ostendorf, 401-455-1555

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (April, 2008) -- At this year's NEXPO show, Creative Circle Advertising Solutions (CCAS) will show off several new products and enhancements to our existing suite of best-of-breed web solutions for newspapers. 

We're unveiling great new features for communityQ, our citizen journalism software being used by dozens of newspaper and TV station web sites, including the Chicago Tribune's triblocal.com. Video and social networking options are now available as well as a donation module, which allows a media site to become the focal point of charity in local communities. Our newest site for a broadcaster, featuring customizable personalities on the home page, will be a big hit at the show!

We're introducing directoryQ, innovative self-service directory software that lets businesses post text, photos, video, coupons, pdfs (brochures, menus, etc.), maps and directions into an interactive web display that can be a standalone site or woven into an existing media web site. It's designed to be a strong revenue generator.

And we're showing sportsQ, which will allow newspapers to host high school sports sites that can track stats for any team, sport or athlete. Users can check scores, standings and schedules and drill down to any stat for any sport in just a few clicks. There are home pages for each sport, school, league and athlete. The site can integrate a newspaper's high school sports coverage as well as all the social networking and citizen journalism tools in communityQ. The module will be available for the fall sports season if purchased by June 1.

highschoolQ, another new product, brings all the power of communityQ to high school sites and will allow newspapers to host school yearbooks and/or newspapers online or set up a standalone site for any college or school featuring our "virtual yearbook." At the end of the school year, students can publish their own customized yearbook through the site featuring the teachers, students, events, activities and comments of their choosing. This software is available for deployment in August for papers ordering it by June 1.

adQ: Intelligent classifieds, our industry leading classified web entry software, now has the option of allowing video classifieds and the ability to network our sites regionally or nationally. Imagine building a classified network in your region by pulling together a wide range of publications in a region! Local classified networks can help counter the recent sag in classified sales, restoring new vigor to online classified sites.

mediasiteQ, our media site hosting software, is the only web solution that understands the need for news web sites to vary their look and feel with the news. We've always believed that newspaper sites shouldn't look like bank sites. We built mediasiteQ to let editors reflect the news on their web sites the same way they do on the front page of their print editions. We'll be showing new page templates and video options for the software this year. Another new feature is our print ad display module, which can showcase all your print advertisements in a category-based slide show.

We expect to have some interesting partnerships to announce during the show, so check in with us in D.C.! 

Creative Circle's roots are in consulting, design and content, not technology. So we're a little better at understanding what newspapers need to survive and thrive. And our solutions are not only better looking; users like them better.

"I like to think of us as the Apple Computer of newspaper vendors," says Bill Ostendorf, CEO. "Our products will resonate with your users. Our leading design puts everything we do a cut above the rest. We create the kind of software everyone wishes they could have."

Our sister company, Creative Circle Media Consulting (CCMC), a leader in newspaper print and web design, training and new product development, will also be represented in our booth. 

Creative Circle Advertising Solutions, Inc., builds best-of-breed software for media companies to create user-generated content and revenue. Products include adQ: Intelligent classifieds, which is the only classified entry system that actually helps users write an effective ad, and communityQ, the leading citizen journalism software in the United States. Clients include NBC, The Chicago Tribune, CNHI, North Jersey Media Group and Media General.

Creative Circle Media Consulting, Inc., has a 25-year history of satisfied clients. CCMC has helped more than 300 media companies on three continents and has led training in for journalists in 38 countries. The firm has redesigned more than 400 newspapers, web sites, classified sections and niche products. Recent clients include The Times-Dispatch in Richmond, Va., The Idaho Statesman in Boise, Idaho, The Island Packet in Hilton Head, S.C., the Catholic Church, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, The Vail (Colo.) Daily and The Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y.

Both firms are based in Providence, R.I., and can be reached at 401-455-1555 or bill@creativecirclemedia.com.