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New website launches in the Battlefords

Feb 1, 2016 | 8:36 PM

A new community website was launched in the Battlefords on Tuesday, Feb 2.“It’s come together just as we would have expected. We have a great, talented team, a great site and we’re ready to go,” Karl Johnston said, general manager of the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group in the Battlefords.

The launch of the Battlefords’ newest media is the result of months of preparation.

“We’ve created a go-to website for everything community, everything Battlefords, lots of news, free classified, funeral notices, and real estate listings. There’s really something for everyone, we think. Just go and explore it,” Johnston said.

“Most communities the size of the Battlefords or larger have hyper-local websites and we looked at the Battlefords and saw a wide opening. No one was doing it,” he said.

Johnston describes battlefordsNOW.com as a website featuring everything Battlefords. He said the site features local news, sports, weather and road information along with free classifieds, store flyers and sections devoted to community news and upcoming events.

“Dozens of community groups are featured in our community sections and I would suggest we are working to build the most complete events section if you are looking to find out what’s going on in the Battlefords,” he said.

Along with being devoted to serving the communities of Battleford and North Battleford, the site looks for community participation through email, polls and comments on news stories are open.

BattlefordsNOW was created by the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group, the team behind local radio stations 1050 CJNB, Q98 and 93.3 the Rock.

A sister site was launched simultaneously Tuesday in Meadow Lake under the name meadowlakeNOW.com. Both sites are closely modelled after paNOW.com, an online newspaper launched five years ago in Prince Albert. paNOW’s readership has grown steadily and the site is now the most read news and information source in the community.

At a time when other media are reducing service and staffing levels, Jim Pattison Broadcast Group’s expanded commitment to the Battlefords has resulted in the creation of three new positions, pushing Jim Pattison Broadcast group’s employment in North Battleford and Meadow Lake to 34.

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