Chicago, IL (1888PressRelease)
October 02, 2008 - In August, Chicago-based Southwest Observer (www.southwestobserver.com) became the first neighborhood news site in the United States to broadcast live video through an all-new streaming feature called Observer:Live.
Equipped with a video-enabled phone (essentially a TV studio in hand at all times), the Southwest Observer now has the ability to send live video of local content to the Internet within seconds—and viewers can send text messages directly to the Observer:Live phone during a video stream. It is hyper-local interactivity never before experienced at the local news level.
The feature, one of several as part of a major site re-launch, uses software created by Redwood City, Calif.-based mobile streaming video company Qik.com. It now provides the Southwest Observer with a powerful tool to engage residents with live, on-location video streams of breaking news, sporting events and entertainment—something only a handful of major media conglomerates had the ability to do until now.
Launched in March 2007, the Southwest Observer serves neighbors in Chicago’s Far Southwest Side neighborhoods of Mount Greenwood, Beverly and Morgan Park. Nearly 200 neighbors have become registered users to create their own Web logs, post photos and video, participate in forum discussions and comment on staff-written content generated by the editor and publisher—both professional journalists.
An average of 2,000 unique visitors—more than 25% of whom are regular local contributors—lands on the pages of the Southwest Observer each month, accounting for nearly 8,000 page views. The site has been named one of “Chicago’s Best Neighborhood Blogs” by the Chicago Tribune and has been a media sponsor of some of the area’s biggest events, including the Beverly Hills Cycling Classic (the kick-off event to the 17-day International Cycling Classic Superweek Pro Tour) and the Chicago Irish Film Festival (one of just a few such festivals in the United States).
For more information call (773) 432-4137 or send an e-mail to editor ( @ ) southwestobserver dot com dot
The Southwest Observer: Community journalism. Evolved.
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