The Bee Offers Podcast, Twitter,

Bringing News And Notices To Those On The Go

By John Voket

After delivering weekly news in print since 1877, and becoming Connecticut’s first online weekly newspaper, The Newtown Bee is tapping new technologies to become Newtown’s go-to source for daily news, information, and multimedia.

After recently soft launching a town-exclusive podcast with news, sports, and features, The Bee is officially rolling out its weekly “Buzz-cast,” along with instant breaking news and traffic notifiers to mobile phones, PDAs, and emails via the online Twitter network.

The newspaper is also working with the Legislative Council’s communications subcommittee, which is in the final stages of coordinating video coverage of the 2009 budget process in the coming weeks. The committee members hope to provide video files of those deliberations and hearings that will be available online through newtownbee.com. This free service is being offered to members of the public who cannot attend the evening meetings in person.

The subcommittee also plans to provide meeting broadcasts to subscribers through the local cable TV public access channel.

In recent months, The Bee has been offering a weekly “Buzz-cast,” which visitors can listen to through the newspaper’s website, or have it delivered to one’s personal music players or home computers using Apple’s free iTunes software.

The podcast typically contains 12–15 minutes of local information, and beginning this week, a second sports-exclusive podcast with Sports Editor Andy Hutchinson is set to launch.

This week, The Bee also introduced Twitter “Tweets” — instant notifiers of breaking news, traffic, and school information that can be delivered through cellphones, BlackBerrys, and other personal handheld devices, as well as home email systems.

Individuals can sign up for this free service by registering their receiving devices at Twitter. Watch a video explaining the service, and sign up at Twitter.com.

Editor Curtiss Clark said he was excited to see these new features go live to Newtown Bee readers and local residents.

“For some time, we’ve been providing email bulletins, along with updating our website when significant breaking news stories demanded it. Now these new media services will make it easier for Bee readers to stay on top of developments like local traffic interruptions, emergencies, school closings, and other important stories as they happen,” Mr Clark said.

The Twitter service will generally alert participating readers via a short message, which will also direct them to access newtownbee.com for more comprehensive coverage, photo, audio, or the newspaper’s soon-to-be-launched video portal.

“We know these are the kinds of services that local residents want to stay informed and instantly connected when something is going on in Newtown,” Mr Clark said. “We look forward to hearing from people about ways we can improve our information delivery in the paper, online, and through these new media services.”

Anyone wishing to provide feedback can call 426-3141 or email editor@thebee.com.