10/20/2009

AP Press Release

TownNews.com joins AP in advancing the presentation of news online

NEW YORK – The Associated Press and TownNews.com, a leader in publishing interactive content for newspapers in the United States, are expanding their affiliation to embrace hNews, the first microformat designed solely for online news content. The AP has announced the completion of the first draft of the microformat specification and TownNews.com plans to use hNews templates in its new BLOX Web content management system.

Earlier this year, the AP and Media Standards Trust, a British nonprofit aimed at supporting high journalistic standards, jointly developed the non-proprietary, standards-based hNews microformat in a global effort to help the news industry adopt consistent news formats for online content. The hNews proposal was published as a draft microformat during the week of Oct. 12 at http://microformats.org/wiki/hNews.

"hNews provides a consistent and higher fidelity way of presenting news online and enables the semantic interpretation of news for humans and machines," said Todd Martin, vice president for technology and director of the AP news registry. "It also enables news publishers to add enriched metadata -- or tags -- to their content to improve the user experience, attract audiences and advertisers, and facilitate searching for specific types of content."

Martin announced the completion of the first draft of the hNews standard and said the latest development "extends microformat efforts by applying the basic principles of simplicity, reuse and semantic presentation specifically to news content on the Web."

TownNews.com helps more than 1,500 newspapers in the U.S., including members of the AP, publish interactive editions. TownNews.com’s new content management system will offer hNews as part of its core library of templates for its customers, enabling them to use hNews out-of-the-box on the new CMS platform.

"We are pleased to work with The Associated Press to help newspapers move to the next level of content publishing," said Marc Wilson, general manager of TownNews.com. "I believe every effort needs to be made to enhance the value of content produced by newspapers."

About TownNews.com
TownNews.com offers state-of-the-art automation technology, helping more than 1,500 newspapers publish interactive editions online. Member newspapers include dailies, weeklies and shoppers from groups and independents in all 50 states. TownNews.com is majority-owned by Lee Enterprises (LEE) of Davenport, IA. On the Net: townnews.com

Contact:
Marc Wilson
TownNews.com
309.743.0816

About The AP
The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is the largest and most trusted source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world’s population sees news from AP. On the Net: www.ap.org

Contact:
Jack Stokes
AP Corporate Communications
212.621.1720