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NEWS MEDIA IS CHANGING FAST - JUST LOOK AT SCOOOP.NET

It looks like there is another site, other than Digg.com and Slashdot, in the new media space of viewer controlled content. Scooop.net is an internet site where you can cast a vote for your favorite news stories. Meet Scooop.net (www.scooop.net) which focuses on such news topics as politics, entertainment, and health & wellness. Scooop.net, a consumer generated media site based on democratic voting principles and active participation of its members, has been launched to challenge Digg.com, which just received a 2.8 million dollar investment by eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar and Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen. In Touch Media Group, a leading supplier of online marketing services, created the site after completing a nationwide market research study, which revealed a huge demand for a new type of media outlet where consumers dictate the site content. Bob Cefail, Chairman of In Touch Media Group, says the company made the decision to move forward on Scooop.net after successfully developing services designed to harness the power of consumer generated media. In Touch Media Group chose not to go head to head with Digg.com, in terms of the technology niche, after performing extensive research to identify the most popular areas of interest for the general public. "There is clearly a pent up demand by the general public for a news and information outlet that serves their interest more closely," states Cefail. "After exhaustive research, involving over 1,100 interviews, it was clear that the technology field, which has been the focus of Digg's efforts, wasn't the most popular area of interest for the general public. Cefail goes on to say that 66% of those who were initially interviewed were interested in entertainment versus only 40% for technology. The health & wellness field was the second most popular area category garnering Interest from over 60% of those interviewed. "An astonishing 90% of those who were initially surveyed wanted to be contacted immediately upon the launch of the site," reveals Cefail. "We do a significant amount of online marketing research work for our clients and we have never seen such a level of interest - never!" In its first 5 days, after the November 15th, 2005 launch, Scooop.net was visited by over 15,000 people and the site broke the top 5000 most trafficked web sites in the world according to Alexa.com, an Amazon.com business unit that measures web site activity. "The excitement this site is generating is mind numbing", states Cefail. After one sees some of the article posts it is easy to see why people go to the site. There are several unique features that Scooop.net possesses which other sites like Digg.com do not. The member who posts the most popular news item in a given week wins $500. Scooop.net also contains a "Hot Topics" section where members can speak their minds about the most controversial news items of the week. The topic covered by Scooop.net during its first week of operation involved whether the oil companies were actually causing the current energy crisis. I would look out for Scooop.net in the future as it ventures into news subjects that the mainstream media would normally stay away from. After all, as the web sites states, this is news of the people, by the people, and for the people. Bruce Prokopets Executive Editor Press Direct International