Editor

The Denver Post’s online community section is a nice reflection of the Mile High City, as evidenced by the site’s nearly 1,000 Web pages by Broncos fans.

Though sports-friendly like the city, The Post (www.denverpost.com) has started to venture into other community interests, using Koz.com to create areas on the community site for Columbine High School and Race for the Cure.

Re-launched in May with Koz.com’s Community Publishing System 4.0, the Post’s site has a new look and an easier interface for users. Having the site is important for the newspaper, which wants to make The Post accessible for as many as possible.

“We have several people who call us and want to include their event in our calendar, and … we don’t have much room (in the print version), so we created this so we can say yes to everybody in the community,” said Stacey Sedbrook, marketing manager at The Denver Post.

The Post has online step-by-step tutorials that guide users on how to set up their own space on the site. They also offer classes to larger groups that want to learn how to use the Koz.com system.

Reaction to the site has been positive, according to Sedbrook.

“We have a lot of people who are using the site to build family photo albums, so they can share memories with those outside the city,” she said.

The newspaper is beginning to explore expanding the community site even further, adding on youth sports and more.

Koz.com’s CPS provides newspapers with tools and support to help build a community site, including homepage publishing, chat, message boards, calendars, newsletters, feedback forms, free e-mail, content feeds, interest portals, e-commerce and directories.

HTML editors help post pages to the site, which means that editors and users need not possess extensive HyperText Markup Language knowledge.

This was one reason The Post chose the Koz.com system, Sedbrook said.

“The Koz.com stuff is more user-friendly,” she said. “[Users] don’t have to know any HTML.”

The administration tools give administrators of the system, as well as those at the group level complete control of their community.

The community site is organized by topic into areas called channels. Koz.com says the channels, or specialized portal sites, are the equivalent of newspaper sections, but newspaper Web sites can create as many channels as they like, avoiding the limits of print media. Newspapers can then sell advertising and sponsorships to companies that specifically wish to target a particular portal site.

Koz.com has created premium channels for popular areas:

The Family Shoebox (www.familyshoebox.com) is a channel that allows families to create their own areas and keep in touch. Users can share information and pictures, and keep a calendar of upcoming family events.

SoccerOnline (www.socceronline.com) is for soccer associations, leagues, clubs, and teams. SoccerOnline users can publish newsletters, maintain schedules, post maps and game results, and communicate with e-mail.

Koz.com also offers the ichat community product suite. The ichat suite consists of ichat Rooms for chat, ichat Boards, which are message boards, and ichat Pager, a version of instant messaging. The ichat system is available with CPS 4.0, or newspapers may purchase it as a stand-alone product.

Koz.com also puts a lot of stock into offering support to its 450-plus affiliates.

kts affiliate program swiftly moves local media from the planning stage to an online presence says Koz.com.

Sedbrook said Koz.com has been helpful in upgrading the system and adjusting their customer service to help the specific needs of The Denver Post.

Support services include planning and implementation support, customization, training, promotional and marketing guidance, advertising and e-commerce solutions. Affiliates are given an Affiliate ToolKit with information, resources and coaching required to launch their site.

Koz.com

919.767.1061