GRNow.com -- The New Normal for Media Arrives in West Michigan

The rebranding of the former community portal GrandRapidsLive.com takes the founders vision for participatory, interactive media to the next level.

Grand Rapids, MI (PRWEB) June 3, 2005 -- When 24-year-old Calvin College graduate Josh Depenbrok founded Grand Rapids Live in 2003, he had an inkling that people in the modern era would neither publish nor access information like they used to. Someone was going to have to design the new medium for normal give-and-take, so Depenbrok figured it might as well be him.

Today -- after enormous growth in user traffic and a fair amount of confusion with a certain newspaper site -- Depenbrok and his partner at Refresh Web Development LLC are rebranding and relaunching their venture as GRNow (www.grnow.com).

The old GrandRapidsLive has been very popular in the community, especially among downtown professionals, in providing information about events and places to go," Depenbrok said. But it has far more potential in its ability to provide information, forums, resource-sharing and a whole host of other interactivity that will one day be the normal way people connect with the world around them."

GRNow offers local restaurant information, events, classifieds, travel information and a nightlife directory, as well as the chance to review and rate local establishments. New features will include event ticket giveaways, an expanded real estate section and the Restaurant Treasure Hunt, where visitors to the site can search for free gift certificates to Grand Rapids area restaurants.

We have a very large vision for the kind of information people will be able to find and share on GRNow," Depenbrok said. We started our original site because there was no reliable local site available where people could find information about what was happening in town. The same venue that has worked so well to serve that need can work equally well in helping people to find any kind of local information imaginable."

26-year-old Chris Carlevato, owner of Refresh Web Development LLC, is the primary technology partner in the powering of the new GRNow.

Media being created today cannot take the same form as its predecessors," Carlevato said. It must take new forms based on new technologies, but just as importantly, new expectations on the part of users. We are excited to help define the new normal."

One important reason for the name change is the frequent confusion that has occurred between GrandRapidsLive.com and MLive.com, the site that hosts online editions of the Grand Rapids Press and various other local newspapers.

We are not part of MLive and dont really compete with them, so it makes sense for us to embrace a name that would not inspire that kind of confusion," Depenbrok said.

With the confusion laid to rest, the GRNow team can focus on building a truly extraordinary media outlet that may be seen, over time, as a leader in redefining normal" for local media.

In order for this to work in West Michigan, it must be owned and operated by people who are part of the local community, understand the technology and the nature of how people use information in this day and age," Depenbrok said. That is why we believe this is the right time, for GRNow."

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