"With this system, all of the information is right in front of us, posted by the school districts directly. It is automatically updated, organized logically and very easy to read. It speeds the information process at a time when time is of the essence. It eliminates steps in which mistakes can be made -- there are no telephone calls to answer, no illegible handwriting or fuzzy faxes to decipher.
"To top it off, the information is automatically sent into our station's web site, making it even more useful.
"FlashNews is a miracle cure. I could go on and on about this, it's so cool."
John Erickson, News Director, KKCW Radio, Clear Channel Portland

That's the principle behind FlashNews.net. Each network collects emergency information from a number of organizations in a specific media market and provides it to the media (print, radio and TV) via a continuously updated website and by sending the info via e-mail to your newsroom and FTPs to your website.

On FlashNews, you will find information about schedule changes and other urgent information from schools, colleges, businesses, hospitals, utilities, cities, military and more. You also will find news releases from many of these organizations. It is a highly localized wire service.

How Participants use it:
Organizations go to a webpage (FlashNews.net) where they can view the current status of other organizations. Then, they input their organization's user name, password and message. The user gets a verification message back, indicating that their information has been received and posted.

How the Media use it:
Information is distributed to the news media and the public in three ways.
1) Each region's home page displays the information within one minute of being received. Stations are encouraged to monitor the page, which automatically refreshes every five minutes. It has a built-in alarm that alerts you to the arrival of new emergency information, even if the page is minimized.
2) Every 15 minutes, at :00, :15, :30 and :45 past the hour, the latest information is e-mailed to radio and TV station and newspaper newsrooms. It can be sent to as many people in your newsroom as you wish.
3) Also every 15 minutes, all information is automatically pushed into participating news media websites, where the public can view it. You can receive the info in HTML, tab delimited or XML format, at no cost.

At 8 p.m., the emergency info database deletes that day's information and subscribers begin placing information regarding the next day, for use in 10 and 11 p.m. television newscasts. (Some organizations may post information before 8 p.m. that pertains to the next day and that information stays alive past 8 p.m.)

The network also provides a means for organizations to send you their regular news releases via e-mail. The releases are held in a companion webpage for one month, so the media can go back and find releases they may have discarded. These also can be published onto your website. The system also has a sports score channel, where districts can post game scores and highlights for delivery to the media via the webpage, emails and FTP pushes into your website.

FlashNews is operated by Craig Walker Communications, Inc., which has managed emergency communications for the school districts in the Portland-Vancouver area for 28 years. There is no cost to the media and organizations pay a small fee ranging from $125 to $250 per year, depending on size.

The Portland region currently has more than 470 subscribers. To see how two Portland stations use the emergency information in their websites, go to: KOIN TV or KEX Radio

To see how The Oregonian publishes the news releases, go to: OregonLive

Is your email address up to date in FlashNews? Click here, select your region, then city, and if you need to make changes, please email Updates@FlashNews.net.

About the report pages:
The region report page auto reloads every five minutes. It will put up an alert box when it reloads and finds new information. You may disable this feature by clicking on “Alert On, Click to Turn Off” (on the right side). The page sorts by category by default; you may toggle it to a reverse chronological view. This is useful on a busy day when you just want to see the latest info coming in. The report page also has a link to the New Conference schedule and the archives for news releases (one month) and sports scores (six days). Another link takes you to a list of the organizations that use the system, most of which have links to their own home page to assist you in learning more about them.

Visit region report pages:

Call or e-mail for more information about FlashNews or to confirm/change the email addresses on file for your newsroom.

Phone: 360.834.1953 Craig@FlashNews.net

© 2008 Craig Walker Communications, Inc.