The parent company of Chicago Sun-Times, The Sun-Times Media group, has re-launched 16 of its news websites, including five dailies and 11 weeklies in the west region of Chicago suburbs after overhaul, Editor & Publisher reported yesterday.

This re-launch of news sites is a part of the conversion of its papers to the Sun-Times Media Desk platform, for which the company started laying the foundation earlier this year, according to NewsandTech.com. To enable better coordination of operations among its five newsroom divisions and promote content sharing, the media group has deployed ContentPublisher editorial app hosted by Digital Technology International to merge its editorial operations and facilitate multichannel publishing.

"These accomplishments are a significant milestone in our company's plan to convert all of our newsrooms to a modern, Internet-based 'in the cloud' system and relaunch all of our newspaper websites, creating an even greater experience for our readers and advertisers," Sun-Times Media CEO and vice chairman Jeremy L. Halbreich and, President and COO Rick Surkamer said in a memo to staffers, Editor & Publisher reported.

Continuing the conversion of all its remaining newsrooms to the media desk platform until 2011, many new sites will be launched by the media group for all its publications, according to NewsandTech.com.