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New Web portal complements MT news site By GREG STILES Mail Tribune The Mail Tribune has launched an Internet information service in an effort to link the region's residents in a new way. www.eSouthernOregon.com is the Mail Tribune's Web site portal designed to complement the mailtribune.com news site with extensive community, cultural and entertainment content. "It's extending our own brand beyond our news coverage," said Grady Singletary, president and publisher of the Mail Tribune. "We wanted to create a destination site for Southern Oregon, not just Medford." For newcomers to the area or for people considering moving here, each community in the region is described in detail along with phone numbers for utilities and civic services. Clubs, churches, schools, athletic groups and other non-profit entities will be able to post information on their own pages within the site as well as linking to their existing pages. A key element to eSouthernOregon.com is its ability to connect nonprofit organizations with their members via an online calendar - maintained by the group. Once the organizations create or link their pages to the site, site subscribers' calendars are automatically changed when opened or refreshed. "We feel we've created one location where many of those items converge," Singletary said. "If your church or nonprofit organization has an activity or fund drive, you could use it to contact all the people associated. This is really a melting pot of community information." The technology for the site was developed by Project A, an Ashland software and Internet technology company, and licensed to the Mail Tribune. "The new Web site has a really strong community and cultural focus," said Webmaster Steve Phillips, who oversees the site. "We have a new kind of client - people that manage free community pages." Even organizations that have never had a Web presence can develop pages on the site. Organizations with their own sites can have links from eSouthernOregon.com back to their home pages. "They have a chance to network and create a resource so people can cruise about and get information from different groups," Phillips said. The sites will be password-protected and updates are checked before they're posted. This portal also acts as a gateway to employment opportunities, car buying and real estate sites. An extensive list of businesses is posted on the site, grouped by services. Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.