Creative Circle creates coronavirus information site for news industry

Posted
Aiming to help newspapers and other news organizations navigate the coronavirus public health crisis, America’s Newspapers and Editor & Publisher have launched Media Virus Watch as an online source for the latest COVID-19 information.
 
Media Virus Watch is powered by Creative Circle Media Solutions, the design, software, branding and consulting firm in East Providence, Rhode Island.  
 
“We were asked by America’s Newspapers and Editor & Publisher to get this done ASAP and managed to have it ready in about 48 hours,” said President and founder Bill Ostendorf. “We were glad to be able to help the industry get a grip on how to better cope with this horrible pandemic and share solutions and ideas we all need.
 
“While the virus outbreak's impact on revenue and work processes is a crisis for our industry, the potential to help our communities and showcase the essential role we play is an opportunity for publishers,” Ostendorf added.
 
Media Virus Watch – www.mediaviruswatch.com – will gather from around the industry newsgathering and safety practices, coronavirus data, reporting and presentation innovations, customer service issues and resources for news publishers. It will serve as a hub for webinars on COVID-19 topics critical to the news media and as a portal for news publishers to submit the work and ideas of their organizations. 
 
America’s Newspapers, the nationwide association championing newspapers, and Editor & Publisher, the authoritative voice of news publishing, have both launched content and curation initiatives focusing on the COVID-19 crisis. 
 
Creative Circle also built and hosts America's Newspapers' web site and is working on web projects with Editor & Publisher. Creative Circle has also built a web application called "What's Open?" to help newspapers through the epidemic. You can learn more here.
 
“This public health crisis is an urgent matter for our member news organizations who serve communities that depend on them to provide trusted, truthful and timely information about the COVID-19 impact on their communities. Helping news publishers provide these essential services is at the core of  America’s Newspapers mission,” said Dean Ridings, America’s Newspapers CEO. “This partnership with the industry’s most important publication strengthens the support we can provide for news organizations.”
 
“We at E&P have added staff and resources to make sure we are curating and crafting the essential content our news publishing readers need to access on an ongoing basis, so they can serve their communities as best as they can,” Publisher Mike Blinder said. 
 
He noted that E&P is tripling the number of podcast interviews it conducts, and has contracted with the app developer Pugpig to distribute Media Virus Watch on mobile devices. 
 
“Our goal is to make sure that all essential content from over 25 association websites, newsletters and blogs that serve our industry, can be easily accessed in one place,” Blinder said.
 
America’s Newspapers was created on October 1, 2019, from the merger of the Inland Press Association and the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association. Its approximately 1,500 members include newspapers of all sizes and frequency as well as businesses that serve the industry. America’s Newspapers provides research, education and practical information all focused on optimizing newspapers’ business operations, deepening their community engagement and enhancing the quality of their journalism.
 
Editor & Publisher is the authoritative voice of news publishing covering all aspects of the industry from the newsroom to advertising and from audience and digital technology to production operations. E&P traces its roots to 1884, and now provides news and analysis in its monthly print edition, its robust website – editorandpublisher.com – and frequent podcasts with industry leaders. Since September 2019 it has been owned by the Curated Experiences Group with Mike Blinder as its publisher.