YourHub.com will be all about you

Published April 9, 2005 at midnight

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It's music to my ears when I hear readers call this newspaper "My Rocky."

It's a sign that we're truly a part of their life, something they look forward to every day.

I'm hoping a major new initiative we're about to launch - based on the possibilities of digital technology - will strengthen that bond even more.

The sales force of the Denver Newspaper Agency began introducing this leap into the future to businesses this week.

I thought you'd want to know about it, too, because it's all about you and your world. My hope is that we can help connect you to your neighbors the way William Byers helped create a community for the miners when he founded this newspaper in a shantytown on the banks of Cherry Creek in 1859.

Then, Byers gathered all the news he could and distributed it from the log cabin that housed his printing press.

Now, almost 150 years later, the world has changed. Reporters and editors aren't the only ones who get to decide what's news. Using the Web, anyone can be a published reporter or commentator, photographer or artist. And that's what we're going to help you become with our new Web site, YourHub.com.

If you click on that url now, you'll find a description of what will be there in a matter of weeks. There's a place for you to sign up to be notified as soon as it's up and running.

What is YourHub.com?

It's a new approach to news, a participatory approach that puts you - our readers - at the center of the equation. YourHub.com is an electronic town square where people can share their lives and make connections. If they think something is news, they will be able to make it news at YourHub.com. The site is a community hub where you will be able to find everything from library hours to news about events and people in your community, written by residents - and journalists, too.

YourHub.com is committed to being easy to use, interactive, interesting, friendly, fun, useful and up-to-date.

To start, there will be 39 YourHub.com Web sites, one for every community in the seven-county metro area.

So, yes, Highlands Ranch will have its own hub (YourHub.com/HighlandsRanch).

And so will Parker.

And Castle Rock.

And Ken Caryl, too.

The 40th site - YourHub.com - will be an entryway, where you'll be able to pinpoint the hub that serves your community.

YourHub.com will let you share stories, photos and opinions, list events and sell things.

But YourHub.com is more than a network of Web sites.

It's also going to have a print component.

As you know, the Rocky is committed to local news. I'm sometimes asked why we "bury" important national and international stories at the back of the paper. I don't think of it that way. I believe we emphasize local news and opinion, which is what makes us a unique part of life along the Front Range. It's what makes people say "my Rocky."

YourHub.com is going to allow us to add even more local coverage. Soon we'll be adding Rocky sections with names like YourHub.com/Highlands Ranch that dig much deeper into community life.

These sections will be delivered on top of both the Rocky and Post to subscribers on Thursdays later this year. Think of them as a rich source of material to stick up on your fridge. The sections will be filled with pictures of your neighbors - and maybe even you - pictures that you provide to us, everything from anniversaries and award presentations to recreational sports and your take on major local events - and don't forget pets.

Just as WeekendSpotlight shines the light on entertainment news and Rocky Preps covers high school sports, our YourHub.com sections will add a new, intensely local flavor to Thursdays. They will be print sections where readers get to define the news. Based on what you post online, we'll know what you consider important, and we'll publish it.

At YourHub.com, we're not going to say no. Many of you know the frustration of not getting your letter in the paper. Or of not being able to convince us to tell the world enough about your organization or event. At YourHub.com, you can do the talking without any interference from us - as long as your language is not vulgar or violent.

Similar experiments are already under way at smaller newspapers in California and South Carolina. In Korea, 2 million readers a day check out OhmyNews.com, which has 26,000 registered citizen journalists.

But I don't believe there's anything anywhere quite on the scale of what we're planning. We're taking a giant step into the future, one that relies on what we know from the past: that names and faces are news. I'll let you know more as the go-live date for YourHub.com approaches. Until then, I hope you'll think of stories you'd like to share.

I'm looking forward to reading them at your new site, YourHub.com.

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