Gannett's Ohio Newspaper Group Awarded First Place for Caspio-Developed Voter Guide

Hyper-local online application available now for newspapers and broadcasters to cover the 2008 elections.

Mountain View, CA (PRWEB) May 1, 2008 -- Caspio, Inc., provider of the leading web-based point-and-click platform for creating web applications, today announced that the Newspaper Network of Central Ohio (NNCO) was awarded first place in the annual Associated Press Society of Ohio competition for its voter guide developed by Caspio. The NNCO utilized Caspio's application platform and development services to launch a hyper-local online application for its 2007 General Election coverage, and was presented with top honors in the Division IV "Best of Community Service" category at Sunday's APSO annual convention.

"This recognition is just further affirmation of our readers' positive comments on the voter guide databases we've published for our last two elections," said Michael Shearer, NNCO Online & Audience Development Editor. "It's a great way to collect deep information on candidates' positions and make it available to readers 24/7."

The turnkey application, which also produced content for print editions, provided an automated system for the NNCO to invite candidates to enter their personal biographies, upload photos, address key campaign issues, and answer specific questions posed by the newspapers. Web site users can review and select their preferred candidates and ballot initiatives, plus print a personalized ballot to take to the election polls.

The contest drew 3,215 entries from seventy-one daily newspapers in Ohio. Said one judge about the project, "Multimedia, databases and search function should serve as model for news organizations searching for ways to provide context, serve readers and remain relevant."

In addition to the first place honor at the ASPO convention, the NNCO newspapers also took third place for "Outstanding Achievement in Innovation" earlier this month in its company's "Best of Gannett" competition.

"The NNCO had the idea to bring together the 10 markets, find the right tool, and work with the vendor to determine how the database should work," stated a Best of Gannett judge. "The database allows for customization for each race. More than 500 candidates in contests participated."

"Offering online readers the opportunity to become informed voters reinforces the value of community journalism while also boosting advertising revenues for the newspapers," said David A. Milliron, Caspio's Vice President of Media Services. "Caspio is proud of the joint effort that made the voter guide a huge success for Gannett's consortium of 10 Ohio community newspapers."

For more information on the Caspio 2008 Voter Guide, go to http://www.caspio.com/vote or call Caspio Media Services at 650-691-0900 ext. 741.

About Caspio Media Services
Caspio Media Services, a division of Caspio, Inc., offers strategic products and services tailored to meet the needs of newspapers, magazines, broadcast and other online media. Solutions include the Caspio Bridge wizard-driven framework for rapid database publishing, custom application development, rich community-based applications, third-party integrations such as mapping and data feeds, syndicated databases, reverse-publishing tools, and training services that empower non-developers to quickly capture, publish and manage data online. News organizations can learn more about Caspio Bridge at www.caspio.com/media.

About Caspio, Inc.
Caspio Inc. (www.caspio.com) is the world's leading on-demand web application creation platform. The company's philosophy is to empower business users to create and deploy web databases, forms and applications easily and without programming. Caspio's on-demand platform replaces coding with intuitive point-and-click wizards, enabling users to rapidly produce web database components for capturing, publishing and managing data online. Caspio shrinks development time from weeks to hours and from thousands of dollars to a small monthly fee. Caspio's customers range from one-person entrepreneurs to Fortune-500 corporations, digital media giants, government agencies, and educational institutions.

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