Tag Archives: GCI

Topix Creators Brag about Creating a Large, Useless News Site

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Topix is a news aggregator which categorizes news stories by topic and geography.   Topix LLC is a privately held company.   Gannett, The McClatchy Company and Tribune Company own a 75% stake in the company.

Today Topix announced that Topix becomes #1 news site of Gannett, Tribune & McClatchy Internet Portfolio -from Topix blog.  I have a few problems with this:

1. This sounds like a made up category,  ie. Metaprinter is the #1 news site of the Metaprinter Inc. portfolio!
2. Topix is ranked #32 in the news category on Alexa.
3. Compete doesn’t show Topix beating USAToday as stated in the above article.

4. I don’t know anyone who uses or likes Topix.  In fact, reading through the comments at the above post, it seems most people suspect the site is full of flame wars, trolls and hate speak.
5. For their size, Topix does not have a vibrant hyperlocal online community.
6. Where are the local advertisers?

I’ve contacted them for an interview.  We’ll see if they can clear some things up.

UPDATE:

An anonymous tipster has revealed to me that some news sites use Topix for their article comments section.   See for example this Gannett owned news site: citizen-times.com

Note the ‘comment on Topix forums’ option directly below the social bookmarking tools in addition to the Pluck Sitelife comments option at the end of the article.
“If you choose the Topix comment option, and enough discussion is generated on topix, it presumably bubbles up the story on Topix and the inbound links to the news site generate page views and more discussion”.

A little more digging on my part revealed that Tribune is using Topix.net to link to “Related News From the Web” as here below the Google Ads box in the body on their Baltimore Sun site.  The purpose here again is to increase pageviews and links.  It seems that Topix is nothing more than a solution for member newspapers to game the system and/or get more Google Juice.

USA Today Launches Another “Community of Interest” News Site Today

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In my interview with Alan Jacobson recently he emphasized the importance of newspapers shifting their online focus to “community of interest” news sites instead of geographic community sites; which are essentially general interest newspapers recreated on a website.  I agree and have been pushing the idea here on metaprinter for quite some time as well.

Because of their inherent targeting, community-of-interest news sites have high reader engagement, more vibrant communities, and are better venues for targeted advertising.  Just look at techcrunch or Kotaku.

USA Today launched  MMA Fighting Stances, a mixed martial arts community site today.  This is the newest in a string of community sites that Gannett is launching (Open Road, Hotel Check-In, Game Hunters, The Oval, and Faith & Reason).  

What do I like? Continue reading →

Why Are Newspapers Paying A Dividend?

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The news-wire services were all abuzz today with the news that McClatchy (MNI) would suspend its dividend indefinitely following 2009 Q1.

The purpose of paying a dividend it to reward shareholders by telling them something like, “our company is so mature and profitable that in lieu of retaining our earnings for growth, reinvestment, or acquisitions we are going to give it to you”.  Some companies have never paid a dividend.  They feel that they can better grow the money for stockholders better than the stockholders themselves.  Berkshire Hathaway, for example, has never payed a dividend and will most likely never pay a dividend.

Why did it take MNI until 2009 to realize the money in their coffers would most likely be better used to pay down crippling debt?  Why is NYT still paying a dividend?  Is it only because the Sulzberger family needs income?  What about GCI?  Why do they think their company is better off shedding cash than using the money to pay down debt and restructure?

I don’t get it.  Paying a dividend is not fooling anyone into thinking your newspaper is strong.  Do everyone a favor, retain those earnings and pay down debt until you figure out how to become economically sustainable.

Want to learn more about dividends?  Here is an intro from Investopedia:

One of the simplest ways for companies to communicate financial well-being and shareholder value is to say “the dividend check is in the mail.” Dividends, those cash distributions that many companies pay out regularly to shareholders from earnings, send a clear, powerful message about future prospects and performance. A company’s willingness and ability to pay steady dividends over time–and its power to increase them–provide good clues about its fundamentals.

Continue reading at Investopedia.com

Newspapers Marginalizing Themselves Online

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“The medium is the message” Marshall McLuhan’s statement is completely relevant when thinking of the ways information is currently displayed on newspaper websites.

The online version of a newspaper should look very little like the printed newspaper and act completely unlike it. A newspaper is a finite, unchanging medium for displaying content. Once the content is paginated and printed, the product has been finalized and that day’s work is over.  Conversely, the online edition of a Newspaper must remain dynamic at all times, receiving content from the company, readers, and advertisers at all times. The Internet is a medium for multimedia interactive environments. Newspapers marginalize their online potential when they maintain the structure and function of a printed paper on their website. I don’t know why this is such a hard concept for newspapers to grasp. There should be more interactive features on newspaper websites.

A newspaper’s online site must be displayed in a format that is appealing to the sense and easy to navigate. Simply putting digitized newspaper pages online is penny wise and pound foolish. People will recognize right away that no effort has gone into the site and will just go elsewhere.

I would like to see more innovation at newspapers’ websites. Something that realizes the potential of the medium. Something more interactive and in-line with the customer’s needs. It’s easy to say that, anyone can say we need something better, but more and more online destinations are coming up with good ideas, unfortunately they are not newspaper companies.

At press time, a great example of innovation in newspaper websites is the Asbury Park Press Data Universe.

The bottom line is that more can be done to steer readers and advertisers to online newspaper sites. How many truly innovative, user-friendly newspaper websites have you come across? These companies have enough money in their coffers to fund an innovative team eager to come up with a great newspaper website. All that is needed now is a commitment from the Newspaper companies to embrace change.