Newspapers in America Being Led to the Exit
I hate to say I told you so. Because good people work at America’s newspapers in every city across the country. And that’s the part that bothers my heart about the slow disintegration of the black and white.
The flip side is that some of the most ruthless, cutthroat competitors you’ll ever meet in the world of business work for these same newspapers. I consider myself a generous and fair individual by most standards. But often in the business world, generous and fair, will get you nothing but a bloody nose.
I’ve had my fair share of let downs and hurt feelings trying to work with my local newspaper. If nothing else, they fed me a dose of reality. If they want to shut you out, they’ll shut you out. And your journey of 10 miles becomes 50. Lesson learned. But times change, and tables turn. Perhaps there is a thing called karma after all.
Reality check: There is a steady decline occurring year after year in newspaper circulation and advertising revenue. The paper is a static, somewhat outdated rendering of news that occurred yesterday. No video or sound, no hi-definition picture, no reader comment or interactive component … at all.
Hello, internet technology! Just as the 8-track surrendered to the cassette tape, and the horse & buggy gave way to the automobile, such is the fate of the traditional newspaper company.
Now, it’s not like they didn’t have fair warning. In fact, some of the age-old papers secured their city’s geodomain. Take Boston.com (The Boston Globe) for example. Nearly 4 million visitors per month and a 52% increase in online viewership in the past year. That’s saying something. The shift is more like an earthquake and approaching tidal wave.
All of this leads to one conclusion –> geo domains. To have the city in .com is a literal gold mine of opportunity. No question about it. Now, it won’t be cheap either as city geodomains in .com are like owning the holy grail. But, there are several excellent alternatives that will also feed the dream and perhaps still leave one above water financially speaking. My favorites for geodomain development are .biz (business), .US (United States), .info (information), and .TV (television/online media). Also for the mobile phone market is .mobi which provides standards for displaying the internet on mobile phones … growing in popularity by the minute.
Some domainers have looked ahead, made the investment, and laid the proper groundwork for becoming the center of the universe in their corner of the domain world. Hard working domain investor & blogger, Elliot Silver, acquired Burbank.com recently and launched into development. He holds the keys to the city, as do brothers Michael & David Castello with PalmSprings.com, or Skip Hoagland with Atlanta.com. Let’s not forget state geodomains and even countries such as Spain.info. These geodomain websites are the future. They are connected to the entire world via the internet. And unless my dog eats through my internet cable, they’ll be receiving my patronage, my business, my revenue, and my recommendation. Will there still be a newspaper floating about in those cities 5 years from now? Perhaps, lining the parakeet cage.
Goodbye newspapers of the world. I no longer need you. I have my own media empire at my disposal. Strange irony.
Almost forgot to post the story that fueled tonight’s writing. It is the bankruptcy declaration of the Minneapolis Star Tribune who presently are claiming $661 million dollars in debt. Something about a “severe decline in advertising revenue”.
I read all about it … on the internet!
So true. It used to many millions and many years to create the image of legitimacy to the public. The bigger the building the more visible the influence and political clout. I learned in 1995 what the internet offered when I put palmsprings.com online and found everyone viewed that name as the big building. Resumes from executives came via email, Fujitsu included our golf page in its advertisements in Japan and people were willing to put their credit cards in our golf tee-time reservation forms. They were looking for something and I was giving them what they expected, all while I was sitting at my computer. That was my big building.