Todd Mintz for SEM PDX writes:
The Asbury Park Press is one of 83 Gannett Newspapers and the domain name was purchased back in 1994 when an “app”? wasn’t nearly as important a term/phrase as it is now.
What would this domain be worth to a propsective purchaser? 2 Million? 5 Million? 10 Million? More?
However, App.com wouldn’t just be a domain sale, it would be a heck of a business opportunity for someone (in the same vein as Cowboys.com except many times better).
It appears that the domain name is owned by an arm of Gannett and a $10 million domain sale might cause them to yawn. But, what if under the right management, App.com could be developed into a $100 Million business in which Gannett could be a partner? A $500 Million business? A Multi-Billion Dollar business? Would they still not care?
Gannett already owns Asburyparkpress.com and they could rebrand that domain as the flagship domain of the newspaper. All the content on App.com can be 301″瞖d to Asburyparkpress.com and though it would be one heck of an ugly job, the transition is technically doable since other than the home page, the old website and new need not share any common page names.
Will Gannett ever realize the amazing business opportunity they possess with this domain name?
For many of us, being in the PPC business, we understand the importance of matching user’s intent to related content. Todd is making a valid point here. Owners of generic domains which use the domain for other purposes then the generic meaning of the domain should rethink the usage on their website. They could use a different domain for their brand and link from the top of the generic domain to another domain. In many of these instances, the potential usage, as in the example above, may provide better opportunities then the current existing business. Last I heard, the newspaper industry is declining rapidly.
Do you know of any other such cases, examples? And if you were to visit App.com, what would you expect the content on the website to be?
Sahar, thanks for featuring my blog post.
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You’re welcome..
Sahar
Sahar, the newspaper companies have themselves to blame for their fading models. Have you tried doing BizDev with any of these companies. They have so many layers to deal with. It takes a month to get a phone call back from them. Lots of them are splitting up their media assets(Print and Internet holdings) and guess what side the CEO is taking, the Internet side. Content is not dead, it’s just all online now. Game over for a good portion of them if they don’t start acquiring some good web properties and let those guys right the ship.
Paul Rubillo
What if you just take one of those P’s off? AP.com. It goes now to ‘Audio Precision’, an audio analysis instrument developer.
When I think of AP, I think of Associated Press. Instead, they own associatedpress.com and ap.org.
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Memories memories..Associated Press used to have an agreement with Audio Precision. They were so smart to let it expire. Go figure.
Sahar