|
Newspapers fight back against online city guides
December 12, 1997
Web posted at: 10:47 p.m. EST (0347 GMT)NEW YORK (CNN) -- A street battle has been raging on the Web. New online city guides -- offering movie listings, restaurant reviews and community events calendars -- have invaded the turf of newspapers, competing for readers and local advertising dollars.
But newspapers are fighting back.
The New York Times, for example, will launch New York Today early next year, a Web site that will compete with services such as citysearch and Microsoft's sidewalk.com
"We're part and parcel of New York. We understand New York at its roots," says Martin Nisenholtz, president of New York Times Electronic Media Company. "I've got a question about whether some others can come in and just automatically presume that position."
Although newspapers are latecomers to the online market, some analysts believe they can leverage their brand names to attract advertisers.
www.citysearch.com "This whole market is the newspapers' market to lose," says Mark Mooridian, a senior analyst at Jupiter Communications. "In the long term, they're going to be very difficult to unseat."
Indeed, some analysts believe online city guides won't survive unless they former partnerships with newspapers.
Citysearch is doing just that, combining services and Web sites with papers including The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, as well as TV and radio stations. The media partners are also footing the bulk of citysearch's advertising bill.
Sidewalk is going it alone for the most part. However, it has the advantage of Microsoft's deep pockets to pay for an extensive ad campaign. In New York, sidewalk's logo is turning up in some unusual places, such as on hot dog vendors' umbrellas and paper coffee cups from diners and delis.
None of the online city guides are making any money yet, as they continue to invest heavily in building their services. But the outlook is promising. Spending on Web advertising is expected to reach $5 billion dollars by the year 2000, with much of that growth coming from local advertisers.
Related sites:
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
- CitySearch Map
- welcome to sidewalk
- The New York Times on the Web
- Welcome to washingtonpost.com
- Los Angeles Times Web Site
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
Watch these shows on CNN for more sci-tech stories:
CNN Computer Connection | Future Watch | Science & Technology Week
Sound off on our
message boards
You said it...
© 1997 Cable News Network, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.