MEDFORD, Ore., April 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2009 Dare to Pear Challenge is currently running through April 5th on mailtribune.com/daretopear, adding an interactive element to the regional Pear Blossom Festival by encouraging people to visit local restaurants, taste the pear special, and be the critic while voting online for the best pear cuisine. Local restaurants will be offering special pear menu items that have been carefully paired with Rogue Valley wines, or beer, depending on the dish. Each restaurant will present a ballot for voting on the pear menu item and complementing beverage, but users are encouraged to go to the Dare to Pear web site to place their vote. Participants are encouraged to gather a group of friends or make it a date night, to try different items at different places. Participating restaurants include 38 Central, Jackson Creek Pizza and Habaneros. "This new element of the Pear Blossom Festival is an exciting addition to Medford's largest community event," said Richard Barney of RJB Consulting. "Medford has long been renowned for its pear industry, so it's great to be able to have our downtown restaurants spotlighting dishes prepared with the fruit (pear) that has historically helped build our local agricultural economy, along side the newest wave of fruit (grape) produced here." A celebrity jury of judges will taste the same entries and a final decision, or overall winner, will be announced during the annual Pear Blossom Parade Saturday April 11th at 11am and posted online at mailtribune.com/daretopear. ABOUT OTTAWAY NEWSPAPERS Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. (http://www.ottaway.com/), is the Local Media Group of Dow Jones. Ottaway operates eight community media groups around the country -- including the Southern Oregon Media Group -- that collectively are comprised of 8 daily and 15 weekly newspapers, several lifestyle magazines and other niche publications, and a multitude of affiliated Web sites in seven states. Media Contact: Sean Polay Product Manager, Distributed Media 774.313.6093 ABOUT DOW JONES Dow Jones & Company (http://www.dowjones.com/) is a News Corporation company (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV; http://www.newscorp.com/). Dow Jones is a leading provider of global business news and information services. Its Consumer Media Group publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch and the Far Eastern Economic Review. Its Enterprise Media Group includes Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Factiva, Dow Jones Client Solutions, Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Financial Information Services. Dow Jones owns 50% of SmartMoney and 33% of STOXX Ltd. and provides news content to radio stations in the U.S. DATASOURCE: Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. CONTACT: Sean Polay, Product Manager, Distributed Media, +1-774-313-6093, Web Site: http://www.mailtribune.com/daretopear http://www.ottaway.com/

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