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(Continued) The Rank for Sales Weekly Newsletter, Dec. 3, 2005. Page 18 
Traditional newspapers to face even tougher times Those that have been reading this newsletter for at least a few years know that I've been predicting the demise of traditional (print) newspapers for some time. On Friday, Borrell Associates released a new survey that reveals traditional newspapers face increasing competition from local websites that focus on leisure, entertainment and travel. Borrell said "Pure-play Web sites with a local focus have gained a solid foothold in many markets". These independent local sites are growing quickly and "elbowing in on territory that traditional local media properties have been trying to stake out for the past decade," states the report. Many of these sites use a url that includes the name of their city, like Houston.com and Toledo.com. As a result, they garner traffic even without much marketing, because some people navigate the Web by typing proper names directly into a url field. Toledo.com, for instance, is the tenth most trafficked site in the city, according to the report. For the most part, these sites focus on entertainment, nightlife, and travel, while rarely reporting on local news, according to the report.  Borrell also states that annual revenues at these local sites have "moved into the six-figure range"--and in some cases, surpass $1 million. "As the Internet tide rises, these once-mired local boats have begun to float," states the report. This dosen't come to me as a surprise at all! Unless you've been living under a rock for the past ten years, the writing was on the wall! Today, people do everything on the Internet, including reading the daily news. I still find it strange that there are so many newspapers that haven't embraced Internet technology yet. I guess they are hoping it may one day go away... (!) To survive today, newspapers need to outsmart themselves with a better mouse trap! This means placing the most updated news on their sites, and giving their users many reasons to come back. In fact, by doing so, they could very well lower their costs. I think that Internet technology is a lot cheaper and much more efficient and certainly a lot faster than print media. And... as a bonus, it dosen't pollute our environment like newsprint ink does, and we don't have to cut millions of trees a year for all that paper either. My two cents. Well, that's it for today folks. Thanks for being here and I will see you all next week. Have a great and safe weekend! Serge Thibodeau, editor Please note that I am available for SEO consultative work or to help you optimize your website for the major search engines. Feel free to contact me for an honest and fair assessment.  Note: Although I always try my best to answer each individual question that I receive, there are times when it's just impossible for me to answer every one I get, as the amount of emails sent to me keeps increasing all the time. Also, please note that, for confidentiality reasons, the names of people writing to us are never disclosed. Please send all your questions, comments or general enquiries to: questions@rankforsales.com Subscribe to the free Rank for Sales Weekly Newsletter <<< Previous page Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 3 14 15 16 17 18  Bookmark the RFS Newsletter by simply clicking here. Search engine industry news corner:  About Rank for $ales Rank for $ales can be reached via email at info@rankforsales.com or you can call from anywhere in the US or Canada, via our toll free number at 1-800-631-3221. Our offices are located near Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Visit our web site at www.rankforsales.com About Serge Thibodeau Pagina+™ is offered by Rank for $ale's parent company: GCIS Inc. Besides serving as editor and CEO of Rank for $ales, Serge Thibodeau currently writes professional search engine optimization articles in some of the following publications:
SEO Today (www.seotoday.com) Additionally, Serge Thibodeau has successfully developed and deployed Global Business Listing, a powerful and flexible 'paid inclusion' search engine that will further increase any company's rankings and visibility in the major search engines. On the Web, at: www.globalbusinesslisting.com Bookmark the Rank for $ales newsletter by simply clicking here. Legal Notice This newsletter is sponsored by Rank for Sales, a professional SEO firm in business since 1997. We suggest you bookmark our newsletter and place it in the list of your favorite websites by clicking here. Feel free to contact us if you need to have your website optimized by a professional SEO firm, or if you have any question on the subject of search engines. |
